Normally, getting a piping-hot pizza from a local restaurant delivered to your door is a good thing, but not if you didn鈥檛 order it and don鈥檛 want to pay for it.
That鈥檚 what Chilliwack鈥檚 Amber Gibbons has been dealing with over the last month as a parade of unwanted food orders have shown up at her house.
The orders are all made from a 778 phone number that she doesn鈥檛 recognize, and this person has sent just about every restaurant in town to her address.
It started a month ago.
While Gibbons and her husband were at work, two restaurants tried to deliver food. Gibbons was home a couple nights later when a pizza showed up. Three minutes after that person left, another delivery arrived.
鈥淚 heard a knock on my door and thought it was the same guy, so I went all the way downstairs and sure enough it was a different guy, from Dominos,鈥 Gibbons recalled. 鈥淎nd I said, 鈥榊ou鈥檝e got to be kidding me.鈥欌
Gibbons asked the Dominos person for the phone number attached to the order, and bingo, it was the same mysterious 778 number she鈥檇 discovered on a previous order.
鈥淚 looked in my phone. I looked in my son鈥檚 phone. Nobody knows this phone number,鈥 she said.
Gibbons started dialing Chilliwack restaurants, asking them to not take orders from that number.
鈥淎nd while I was on the phone with Jim鈥檚 Pizzeria, that phone number called in to make a $70 order to my address,鈥 Gibbons said.
All of the orders have been in the $70 to $100 range and on one busy night there were four delivery people from four different restaurants knocking on her door.
鈥淚 was trying to wrack my brain to figure out which restaurants hadn鈥檛 come here yet,鈥 she said. 鈥淥ne of them was Demetre鈥檚 Pizza, and sure enough, just a couple days ago Demetre鈥檚 showed up at the door.
鈥淲hoever it is is smart enough to not order from Skip the Dishes or something where you have to pay ahead of time. They are literally ordering from every restaurant in Chilliwack where you can pay at the door.
It got to the point where Gibbons phoned the RCMP.
鈥楾hey said, 鈥業 know it鈥檚 a pain in the ass for you, but you鈥檙e not really the victim here,鈥 Gibbons said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the restaurants that are losing the money, and if they want to call in a complaint, they can.鈥
A couple restaurants told Gibbons they will do exactly that, and she is wondering if anyone else has experienced the same problem.
鈥淗onest to God, I don鈥檛 have enemies, so I don鈥檛 know why this is happening,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 thought about putting the phone number on Facebook because he may be ordering food to other addresses. But I have no idea.鈥
eric.welsh@theprogress.com
Like us on and follow us on .
Want to support local journalism during the pandemic? Make a donation