Kourtney Stevenson was allegedly caught on camera spraying meal with chemical that later sickened customers
A driver for the popular food delivery platform DoorDash has been arrested after allegations that she showered an order with pepper spray in plain view of a doorbell camera, sickening a customer and his wife, according to authorities in Indiana.
Kourtney Stevenson faces counts of felony battery and consumer product tampering, the Vanderburgh county sheriff’s office said in a statement on Friday, addressing a case that is bound to be of significant interest to DoorDash’s 42 million or so users.
Stevenson, 29, allegedly told investigators that she used the pepper spray in question to try to kill a spider that had frightened her, but they did not believe her, saying it was too cold at the time of the delivery for that kind of creature to be out.
After ingesting their meal, they vomited while also enduring burning in their mouths, noses, throats and stomachs.
who told the outlet that he had ordered from the fast-food restaurant chain Arby’s for him and his wife.
OK but… That could’ve just been the Arby’s food.
If anything, it was already pepper sprayed twice already before the dasher picked it up.
Ever notice it seems like it’s always DoorDash with this shit? IDK if they pay people less or are less stringent with their hiring but it seems like it’s always DoorDash.
Ok actually never thought about that.
Grubhub probably loving this.
Don’t tamper with food, it’s a serious felony. Unless you’re a multinational corporation poisoning everyone including children. That’s acceptable.
Hello Nestlé
“We’re sorry…” Naked man on a bear rug
Or a government agency targeting brown infants riding by in a car then it’s also acceptable to pepper spray.
Door dashers don’t have the funds and corporate connections to legally sicken and kill people.
Stevenson initially agreed to meet with the sheriff’s office, though the agency later said she backed out. Detectives subsequently obtained a warrant to arrest her.
This makes me laugh. She agreed to meet with the sheriff, then realized how badly she had fucked herself. Surprisingly, the problem didn’t magically disappear.
This is why you never talk to the police. Don’t ever volunteer information. If they call/text you, ignore it. Make them spend the resources hunting you down. If they bring you in for questioning, the only words coming out of your mouth should be, “I would like to to speak with an attorney, please”. More often than not they won’t even bother obtaining a warrant for minor shit like this, but only if you don’t make it easy for them.
They had doorbell video of her doing it right at the door. With that kind of evidence making it super easy, they’ll prosecute.
IANAL, but if it’s true that a lawyer only needs to create Reasonable Doubt in the mind of a single jurist… I’m pretty sure I could do that. Of course, her lawyer will probably be a gig economy worker too, so they might just pepper spray her and plead guilty while she chokes. Badum. Tish.
(Marxist) But also, this woman, and all gig economy workers besides, is basically a sharecropper without land. I don’t specifically think that what Nat Turner did was right, but I do understand why it happened. Likewise, someone who probably lives in their car 75% of their life because that’s about all they can afford, forever, at the door of some comfortable warm secure home of a person who is participating in your exploitation just so they don’t have to go retrieve their own extreuded meat paste sandwich… well like I said, I don’t think what Nat Turner did was right either.(/Marxist)
More generally: Back in the 80s when everyone had a suburban home and nobody suffered, you still wondered if those teenagers in back of the McDonald’s were messing with your food… and they were. And those kids had a bright future, or so they believed. We didn’t appreciate what we had.
This is the LSCD (Late Stage Capitalism Doomer) version of a little extra sauce on your burger. Pillorying this prole won’t even actually make anyone feel better, and it sure as shit is not going to fix a motherfucking thing.
Food tampering is a felony.
Food tampering is minor now
Read my other comment in this comment section. I really don’t think that’s what was going on here. Cause why would she fuck with their food right in front of a camera? Something else is going on beyond the narrative the police are spinning.
And even if the police are right, food tampering is in fact a minor crime compared to say, murder. The police only have so many resources. They have to prioritize what’s worth pursuing and what is minor enough to let go.
Food tampering can absolutely kill someone, and it did. This is not the case of someone trying to pass petty items at a Walmart.
You’re thinking way too hard about this. She’s stupid, that’s why.
I am not saying she isn’t a shitty human, but when a poor person puts shit in people’s food…jail.
When a corporation does. Stock buy backs.
We should hold everyone accountable for poisoning people.
don’t put shit in people’s food. It’s a serious felony as it should be.
In my town a waiter put eyedrops into a rude customers drink. He went to the hospital and she went to prison.
What kind of eye drops can that be, that are okay for the eyes but poison you, when swallowed? Oo
Somehow my understanding was, that the eyes are much more sensitive to stuff like that
Nope, certain eye drops can cause renal/kidney failure. Your eyes are definitely sensitive to other kinds of chemicals, but the eyes and stomach can be considered to be different bio mechanical factories
Makes sense, but single drops already can trigger that?
If it’s for medicinal purposes, absolutely. There’s a reason every organ has multiple layers of their own filtering so stuff don’t end up in the wrong place, and lots of medicines are really potent stuff that absolutely shouldn’t end up in places where there’s no filtering in place for that kind of chemical. Very tiny amounts of literal neurotoxins can be used medicinally by putting them in the right places, and the very same very tiny amounts would kill you instantly if put in the wrong places.
It can happen. Systemic absorption as opposed to only local effects of eye drops can have a big impact, and if you’re trying to poison someone, you’re probably putting in most of a bottle of eye drops (5-15ml) instead of the few drops you would put in your eye, so potentially a ~100x higher dose.
Just thinking briefly about it, I think the more dangerous eye drops would cause lower blood pressure if taken orally or potential kidney problems depending on the drug.
It would probably have to be a high dose to seriously affect a healthy young person, but an older person or someone with underlying health issues or other interacting medications could more easily be affected.
They’re sensitive to different things
Simpsons did it.
The “it’s too cold” logic doesn’t really hold up. A spider could be in a warmer place like indoors or her car and then have gotten in the bag. Of course, her claims don’t make much sense, either. She could have just fled. Of course, I’m no psychological expert regarding phobia driven behavior. Anyway, if she did want to harm the customers for some reason, that’s wild that she sprayed it on the porch and not just on the street or in her car. I suppose maybe if she did t want to get pepper spray inside her vehicle.
Anyone who thinks pepper spray is what you use on spiders should be locked up.
Absolutely.
You need a lighter in front of the nozzle first. This isn’t amateur hour.
Please don’t harm spiders.
How many legs are you typing this with right now?
The normal amount. I want to say, five?
Nah I jest. Spidey bois are our friends, they’re unsung heroes of the pest-killing world.
I’m still not a fan though.
Sounds like, whatever her reason, she did it on an impulse.
Did she open up the packaging and spray directly on the food? Article doesn’t say that. Usually food delivery comes in a bag that’s stapled or taped shut, and the items in the bag are in their own closed containers, except maybe for fries. I’m just not clear on how the spray could have gotten onto the food.
I’m guessing indirect contact. Spray on bag, touch bag, take out food, eat finger food, potentially lick fingers, too.
Then lick the back clean too of course
My neck, my back
Best detail I think is that they door dashed Arby’s.
It’s not even very good fresh I can’t imagine how bad it would be delivered.
Wait, what was the order? If it was capsaicin spray, maybe they were just trying to comply with direction to make it extra spicy? /s
Someone on Reddit recounted once how their friend likes food so spicy that they in fact carry capsaicin spray with them to restaurants and spray it on their meals.
When I was in the army, the MP’s all used their mace as spice.
But there are also other types of irritants, not all of which are as harmless when eaten.
I believe her, because why the fuck would you do this in front of their home with a camera, instead of driving to a secluded place and tampering with it there? I’m not buying the “too cold for spiders to be out” excuse from the homeowners, either.
Something’s not adding up, here. Why would she tamper with it to begin with? Was the customer being a Karen to the driver or something? I need more context.
Well which is it, that she tried to pepper spray a winter spider, or that the victim had it coming?
People are fucking stupid and crazy, there truly does not need to be a reason
Maybe they didn’t tip. You yanks get unhinged over tipping.
It’s frankly criminal that tips are a mandatory component of food service in Canada/US.
You’re expected to tip a base amount regardless of service quality – as that’s how the pay/hours are structured.(If you don’t tip then you’re effectively stealing from the worker)
The assholes who don’t tip (or under tip) get basically no punishment and are financially rewarded for their shitty behaviour.
All while some servers/bartenders get laughably overpaid. (At least from my perspective as someone who worked many 12 hour shifts as a line cook way back when).
(None of this is to say that tampering with someone’s food is ever okay)
I dunno about that. When I delivered food for an app, you didn’t get tipped until after the food was delivered.
The apps mention that higher tips incentivize faster delivery from drivers to encourage users to do it. That would only make sense if you got a preview of the tip when the order is placed. If the tip gets changed to something lower after you’ve done the legwork under the assumption of a higher reward, I can see that being frustrating. I’ve also seen “If the tip is below $X per mile, I’m not taking the order” and similar comments online from driver communities. Haven’t done it myself, but maybe things have changed
My first question: Has Stevenson made deliveries to this address before, and what was that experience like? Is this an ongoing relationship with these customers? Or is this just a random act of criminality, in front of a camera? I guess I have a lot of questions.
Edit: Don’t they like chili / spicy in Indiana?
Two grains of black pepper in a large casserole counts as spicy in Indiana. They’re at homeopathic spice levels.
Does it matter? Under what circumstances would these actions be justified?
If the food stood up and attacked her. But it doesn’t appear to have been the case.
Not the person you’re responding to, but I had the same questions. They didn’t come to mind as looking for a justification, only that it could possibly give some additional context. If she delivered there before and they had gotten into a verbal altercation for example, it would shed even more doubt on any excuse she might make. I’m not saying there’s no way she did that for no reason or for her cited reason, but it’s possible that a motive for doing that might be clear if we had that additional information.
you ever work customer service?
not messing with people’s food but i can think of multiple shit customers deserving a good pepper spraying
I’ve worked customer service and comments like yours always come from stupid people.
I’ve see multiple coworkers go home in tears over an interaction with a customer
bud sure bud you must be special
