'What is going on? Why are you bringing me food?' Dad's $1,400 surprise after son played with phone
Keith Stonehouse was home with his son Mason, six, while his wife was out over the weekend when their doorbell began ringing repeatedly from around 9pm.
It was Saturday night and the pair were getting ready for bed when the doorbell rang once, twice, three times, each time a food delivery being left at their front door.
The father and son, who live in Michigan in the US, had ordered dinner earlier that evening.
Afterwards, Keith had given his son his phone to play with for about 30 minutes.
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Keith and Mason Stonehouse were in for a surprise on Saturday evening. Supplied
Keith opened the door to ask one of the drivers why they were bringing him food and was told they worked for GrubHub, which is when he put two and two together.
"I said, 'What is going on? Why are you bringing me food?'" he told CNN affiliate WDIV-TV.
Mason had placed several food orders while playing with his phone. Keith watched the food arriving on their doorbell cam.
The little boy had ordered seafood, salads, pita wraps, sandwiches, chili cheese fries and multiple orders of ice-cream.
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The Michigan dad realised Mason had ordered food on his phone. Supplied
Keith tried to cancel as many of the orders as possible but they were left with a lot of food to get through – with the help of some neighbours – and with plenty of leftovers.
Keith told 9Honey about $US1,000 ($1400) in food orders went through.
"$US439 ($614) in pizzas was flagged for fraud from my bank," he said.
"We ate some, had family over for some, neighbors bought some, etc."
Mason had ordered seafood, sandwiches and ice-cream. Supplied
He said his favourite of Mason's food orders "was all of the ice-cream."
"We have locked our phones down from him and the apps and he's not allowed at all on the phones."
Keith and Mason's mother Kristin decided to use the incident as a teaching moment, taking money out of Mason's piggy bank to pay for the food.
"It sunk in when we were actually taking his money to teach him a lesson," she said.
Mason has been banned from using his parents' phone. Getty Images/iStockphoto
The parents told Mason: "We know this money in your piggy bank means something to you … [and] it's only a fraction of what was spent."
After the story went viral, GrubHub reached out and offered the family a $1,000 gift card.
Mason has lost his phone privileges but still has his iPad "with education games and apps only," Keith says.
