CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - The parents of a 6-year-old boy from Chesterfield Twp. are dealing with the fallout of a massive food delivery bill after their son went on a $1,000-spending spree using their Grubhub account.
"With seconds and minutes, the doorbell continuously rings and food is being dropped off on my porch," said Keith Stonehouse to WWJ's Ryan Wrecker.
The bewildered father said he was tucking his son, Mason, into bed on Saturday night -- while his wife was out -- when the doorbell suddenly rang.
He had no idea the barrage of delivery drivers was just beginning.
"I looked down and a lady is dropping off a big bag of stuff," Stonehouse said. "...my son got extremely excited that someone was at the door and that was surprising. He said, 'Who is it? Who is it?'"
Stonehouse explained his wife owns a bakery "A Slice of Heaven Cakes" and clients do drop off decorative items they borrowed on the weekend, but the when he opened the front door to bring it inside, he was surprised to see a very large Coney Island bag.
As he tried to piece together what was happening, the door bell rang again. And again. And again.
"The food just kept coming," Stonehouse said. It wasn't until he was arguing with a delivery driver over where an order of shawarma came from that he said it hit him: his 6-year-old son had last had his phone.
"I went upstairs to grab my phone and I look and it's Grubhub continuously telling me, 'your food is being prepared, It's on it's way. It's delivered. Your food is being prepared. It's on it's way. It's delivered.' Like never-ending scrolling messages of this," Stonehouse added.
And there was nothing he could do to stop the food from coming. When he called one restaurant, he was told he needed to call Grubhub. Without a way to contact the delivery company and no way to cancel the orders, Stonehouse said food from several different restaurants kept showing up as the money in his bank account kept going down.
Stonehouse said he was initially angry and tried to reprimand his son, but the conversation took a comical twist when Mason held up his hand, cutting his father off and asked, "but did the pepperoni pizzas come yet?"
"I lost it, I didn't know what to do," Stonehouse added.
In perhaps a twist of fate, Stonehouse received an alert saying Chase Bank had flagged a $439 order from Happy's Pizza and declined the payment. But that didn't stop almost $1,000 worth of other food from getting by.
While Stonehouse said he is aware of other cautionary tales of children purchasing things on their parents' phones, he never expected his son would order Grubhub and certainly not to this extent.
The family has stored most of the food in refrigerators and even sold a 5 20-piece jumbo shrimp order worth $183 to a neighbor for a party. Stonehouse said family was invited over to feast, but as punishment, their son wasn't allowed to touch the food he had ordered.
"He knew exactly what he ordered, 'I want some chilli cheese fries that I got!' I said, 'nope, that's stolen food, that's stolen,'" Stonehouse explained.
The father said it's been difficult and frustrating to make his son see the severity of the issue, but over time, Stonehouse said his anger has simmered down.
"I'm still a little upset, but now I'm trying to laugh at it," he said. "Everyone keeps saying this will be funny at his graduation and you should serve this at his wedding afterparty, all the food that he ordered.
Life is short, get over it."