An Oregon mom was left stunned after receiving security camera footage on her phone showing her 12-year-old son sneaking a McDonald’s DoorDash delivery into the house in the middle of the night.
The story of Claudia Mercer from Portland, Oregon, and her 12-year-old son Devin all started when Mercer was awoken at 2:30 a.m. by an alert on her phone.
The kind of alert any homeowner would fear: the security camera outside their home was picking up movement. What followed for Mercer was what she describes as a “series of emotions” as she watched a mystery man approach their home carrying something.
“At first I’m thinking, ‘Who’s this guy coming up to the house?'” Mercer told Newsweek. “Then I had a sudden panic as I saw him change direction to the rear of the house. It seemed like he had purpose or knew where he’s going.”
Those initial pangs of terror, thankfully, gave way when she suddenly saw Devin pop his head out of a window at the side of the house and reach out for the bag the man was carrying. It quickly became apparent that Devin had ordered takeout for himself and had had the delivery driver circumvent the front door to avoid detection.
claudiamercer5/TikTok
“I was stunned,” Mercer said. “I wanted to laugh but I had so many questions: just how? What did you get? And how did you pay?” She waited until the next morning to confront Devin over what happened.
When he did finally get up, his response was simple: “Sometimes you just need that Big Mac fix.” It turned out Devin had gotten hungry in the night and, after a little investigation, discovered that DoorDash accepted payment via Apple Pay.
“Almost a year before I had set up both kids with ApplePay and had sent $10 each as a test,” Mercer said. “Apparently a Big Mac with delivery is $9.90 so he had enough.”
It turned out Devin had been standing on his bed to make sure the driver saw him when he arrived at the Mercer home and “the exchange happened.” The order had been placed on a school night. In fact, Devin had a friend over, which might explain the eagerness to get a midnight snack.
Mercer said these revelations prompted a series of conversations about “safety, money and the importance of tipping.”
“I later I sent him another $5 so he could send the guy a good tip,” Mercer said. The mom added that she also glued the window closed, which is high up in her son’s room, to avoid any repeat orders.
Mercer has been able to see the funny side and bears no ill will toward DoorDash. She even went as far as to post the security camera footage of her son’s efforts to TikTok, under the handle @claudiamercer5, with a caption stating “well played sir.” Internet viewers evidently agreed, with the video amassing over 805,000 views and counting.
Every day, millions of Americans are using DoorDash to order food and other household items to their homes at the touch of a smartphone. According to Statista, Americans spend close to $67 billion annually on the popular app, with the average spend per order found to be in the region of around $34.85.
Most of these orders will be nothing much to write home about. A Chinese takeout, pizza or some essential groceries someone might be too pressed to head out for. Every now and then, though, the internet serves up an example of a delivery that veers into more unusual territory though. Maybe they delivered to the wrong address or a customer left an unusual note with their order. There have even been instances of items not being delivered at all.