A bowl of gravy, 1 lone doughnut: New Westminster inundated with unwanted Uber Eats deliveries

Free food doesn't seem like a bad thing, but for some residents of New Westminster, B.C., it's been the source of trouble for weeks.

People living in the Victoria Hill neighbourhood in New Westminster say they are frustrated by a slew of unsolicited Uber Eats deliveries — a bizarre situation that's also happening in California.

They say dozens, if not hundreds, of packages have been piling up on their doorsteps in recent weeks. Residents have no idea who ordered them.

More than 30 deliveries were sent to Jennifer Hughes' townhouse in just one week, including two bottles of water and a single doughnut.

"One of our neighbours got a bowl of gravy from KFC," Hughes told CBC News.

"Either we weren't home and they were left on our patio or multiple delivery drivers showed up carrying bags and I was like, 'we didn't order any of it.'"

The orders are all paid for. The name of the sender isn't included and there are no specific addresses or unit numbers attached — only generic addresses for multiple townhouse and condo buildings. 

Hughes reached out to other residents on a Facebook group and discovered dozens of people are facing the same dilemma.

Geoff McLennan says the unwanted food deliveries reached their peak this past Thursday with dozens of deliveries piled up in front of doors and condo buildings. 

"Somebody sent me a photo of their front porch where animals had gotten in the McDonald's bag and the food was everywhere," McLennan said.

Deliveries have since stopped. Residents hope it's for good.

Reports of unsolicited deliveries 'concerning': Uber

Uber said the reports of unsolicited deliveries are "concerning." A company spokesperson was not made available for an interview but said in a statement that Uber has banned accounts related to recent orders and "will not hesitate to take additional action if the unsolicited orders continue."

Hughes says she contacted the New Westminster Police Department about the orders but was told police are not able to address the issue.

The police department did not respond to CBC's request for comment. 

The Uber Eats orders were addressed to names such as "Steve C" and "Jenn O," which didn't match any names of people living in the buildings they were sent to. The deliveries came from a phone number with the digits 555-555-5555.

Similar strange situation in California

Residents of a Los Angeles neighbourhood have also been recently inundated with unwanted Uber Eats food deliveries, the Los Angeles Times and ABC7 reported last week.

Uber launched an investigation into the source of the unwanted orders, according to media reports. 

David Jao, a professor at the University of Waterloo's Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, says he believes the incidents in New Westminster and Los Angeles could be connected.

"This kind of thing is unusual enough that of course they could be connected," he said in an interview. 

While it's unclear who is behind the unwelcome deliveries, and what their motive is, Jao says it's almost certain that it's not criminals testing out stolen credit card numbers to see if they work before they make a big purchase — since the deliveries have been happening for weeks. 

"If this is coming from stolen money, somebody's going to notice the stolen money, they're going to report it to the credit card agencies," he said.

Jao says if the deliveries were somehow sent accidentally, perhaps because of a buggy account, then banning the accounts will work.

But if it's deliberate, then the person or people behind it will try to find a way around the bans, according to Jao.