Food Delivery Fiasco

Early this morning, the sky split open and a few good storms worth of rain splattered to the earth all at once. It rained hard and fast for a while. I woke to the rain and the brightness of the grey sky as my bedroom curtains were thrown open. It doesn’t rain much here, so inevitably someone has to watch it fall. Usually, it’s me, and I usually have to run out and feel it, but today, I was trying to sleep in. I made it to 8:43. Later than I’ve slept in in a long while.  I dragged myself out of bed and checked my phone. I had forgotten that today was food delivery day. The text that waited said my box had been left on my doorstep. It was still raining, but it had calmed down quite a bit.

I opened my door to bring in the box. A woman was there in front of me struggling with a giant box, my box. I yelped and jumped back in surprise. I thought she must be the delivery person. It turned out, my box had been left on her doorstep. There was another box on my step that wasn’t mine, nor was it her box. I’m grateful that she brought it over to me. The box was very heavy. I hope she didn’t hurt herself being a kind neighbor. We both promised to call the food company about the delivery fiasco.

The first time I contacted them, I asked them to just come pick up the other box and redeliver (this was all pre-coffee, I don’t deliver stuff in the rain pre-coffee, it’s a character flaw of mine). They said they wouldn’t do that due to COVID. So, they said they would reach out to the proper owner of the box. I pushed the box out of the rain and out of view from the street, let them know it was on the porch and told them to give the person my phone number if they needed help finding my house, etc.

Meanwhile, I went about my morning. I had my shower and the 3 cups of coffee it took to feel human today. And then checked the porch and my phone. The box was still there. It was time to do the right thing. I contacted the food company again, told them the box was still there and I hadn’t heard from its’ rightful owner, so could they please let them know that I was going to just drop the box off on their doorstep. The company said that they discourage that sort of thing, that they’d already reached out to it’s rightful owner and given them a full refund. They told me to keep the extra food box.

I use the food delivery service to avoid going to the store, especially while COVID numbers are crazy high. I certainly appreciated the neighbor who brought me the box of food I had ordered. So, I donned my mask, hopped in my car, and drove it to the address on the box just to see if they wanted the box of food they’d ordered for free (since they’d already gotten a refund). I ordered more than I probably should have this week. I really didn’t need more anyway. Alas, the address was in a gated community. There was a call box with a directory by name, not address, and none of the names matched the one on the box (not even just the last name). I thought it might be extra creepy to call a random person to see if they knew them (I wouldn’t answer that question if that was me), so I went back home with the box.

I had already tried to find them on social media including Nextdoor. I couldn’t find a phone number.  This was a person who did not want to be bugged! So, I decided to open it.

The first thing I saw in the box was avocados (I’m allergic to them and I have a tree full of them in my yard). There were some foods I had already gotten in my box, some things I just wouldn’t eat, and some more allergenic to me but otherwise good food. And the box was dry and the ice pack was still solid. I called my favorite local food bank (I have donated to them online in cash and sent some items to my friend’s synagogue when they were doing a food drive for the food bank, but I had never brought them any donations directly).  They said I could drop them off anytime except during their lunch break.  So I left immediately. Getting out and driving felt so, so good.  There’s something downright therapeutic about driving alone and singing whatever I want at the top of my lungs.

I delivered it, refused a receipt because I didn’t want them to go through the hassle of writing one, and went home to my fabulously exciting day of staying home! I hope whoever gets the misdelivered food from the local food bank really enjoys it. This was the biggest adventure I’ve had in months! I hope that the delivery driver still has a job too after misdelivering at least 3 boxes in the pouring rain.