Delivery Drivers Reveal The Craziest Things They've Encountered En Route
"Knock, knock." "Who's there?" God only knows. Being a delivery person is a pretty simple job. You arrive, take something form one location and bring it to it's desired destination. When you take the job you don't immediately think... "I'm putting my life and sanity on the line for this person's pizza or leather pants!" Oh things you'll see during a drop off.
Redditor _XerxesJester wondered... Delivery drivers of Reddit, what have you experienced on a delivery that you will never forget? There are just moments in life you'll witness, that you'll never be able to forget.
YOU DO NOTICE MOTHER NATURE IS UPON US RIGHT?
In near hurricane conditions I was delivering subs for Jimmy Johns. Took me a little longer than usual to get to a house, I am completely drenched, standing in the rain because the front door didn't have a stoop. The guy opens the door and says "took you long enough" grabbed his sandwich and didn't tip me.
LEAVE THE PIZZA ON THE FLOOR AND RUN!
Had a delivery for a hotel at 2am on saturday. I went to the front desk and they asked me to come to their room. I went and knocked and a middle aged bald man answered with only his head poking out, I couldn't see the rest of his body. He opened the door and asked me to come inside and put the pizza on the table, which i did b/c i'm an idiot. When i walk inside i see another middle aged fat man sitting on the bed and the guy who opened the door closed it behind me. Then, i turned around and saw the door guy was only in a thong. Nothing happened and i left without saying a word, but it was definitely strange.
WHERE'S THE PEPPERONI?
Domino's driver years ago in college.
The most unforgettable time, I was delivering to a moderately affluent suburban home. Ring the doorbell of a house that was completely dark, expecting it to be a no-show. As I'm about to give up, a half-asleep older woman answers, says her husband must have ordered, that's he's in back in the garage.
I make my way to the back and yep, lights in the garage are on. I knock on the side door and he answers in a robe and pajama bottoms. Asks me to step in while he grabs the money.
Once he found it, he eventually paid me AND gave me like a $30 tip on a $20 pizza. Still so many unanswered questions about that.
DON'T TURN AROUND...
I used to deliver Edible Arrangements. One time I was at a house in your average northeastern suburban neighborhood and I had gone to the door with the arrangement but didn't get an answer. So I go back to my truck, put the arrangement in the back side door, and was standing outside the open passenger door facing the truck, trying to call the customer to see if they'd be home soon and I can leave or if I should try to find one of their neighbors to take it in.
As the phone is ringing, the customers car pulls in the driveway and so I hang up the phone and wave, and as they roll down their window I start to say "Oh, hi! I have a delivery for you-" and the customer who's house this was just very calmly said "I don't want to alarm you, but there's a bear right behind you.."
I turned around and not 3 feet away was a young bear (bigger than a cub, but not yet full grown) just sniffing around their bushes. I didn't know what to do, my legs just turned to jelly and I froze. So I said to the customer _"What do I do??" _and she looks at me like I'm crazy and goes _"GET IN THE CAR"_
Now, the smart thing to do would have been to jump into the passenger seat that I was literally standing right outside with the door open and everything but in my nervous state, I slam the passenger door and run all the way around (the long way around the truck, too smh) and get in the driver's seat and lock the doors.
The side door to the refrigerated side of my truck was still open, but at least I was separated from the bear. The bear didn't notice me until I slammed the door shut but all he did was wander up to the side door and sniff the beautiful fruit arrangements in my truck. He hung out for a few minutes until the customer finally had enough and laid down on their horn until he took off running down the street. There were a few other interesting deliveries from that job but none turned my legs to jelly like that bear.
I'M LISTENING...
I made a delivery and some form of small terrier bolted through the door and bit me hard enough to leave a mark through my winter gear. I let the owner know and he apologized because it wasn't his dog and he didn't know to anticipate that.
It was his dad's dog and his dad's house and his dad was inside the house dying. The family had been sitting there trying to ease his passing for a day or so and needed that pizza to help sustain them.
He wasn't overly emotional, but clearly wanted to be able to talk to someone about it. I'm the sort of person that wants to let people get all that out. Unfortunately I was on the clock and really needed to get as many deliveries in as possible. I still feel like I should have stayed a little longer.
POOP IS NOT PART OF THE DEAL...
This literally just happened to me 30 minutes ago on a delivery. I'm an Ice delivery driver and some big box stores like for us to not only to deliver the ice- but also to stock the front of the store, which is a large insurance risk for us.
So as my helper and I are dragging a pallet to the front, accompanied by a store employee we all notice a foul smell. Let's just say it's a store not exactly known for the most cleanly of people. Before we can get to the front a second employee runs up to us in a panic yelling, "There's poop. There's poop everywhere."
Behind him is a literal trail of smears- someone had pooped down their leg and dragged it probably 50 yards all over the store. They had one employee attempting to clean it with a shop vac. Cleaning poop. With a shop vac.
"Hey ice guy can you help us out here?"
"Yeah no chance."
"Then I'm denying the delivery."
So here I am writing this out 30 minutes later- sitting in the store managers office explaining to him why the receiver denied a delivery.
Also sorry for the formatting I'm on mobile.
MEOOOOW!!
I used to deliver pizza. Favorite experience: The guy opened the front door and is smoking herb. And then...KITTENS. 4 kittens come round the corner meowing, and start trying to climb my pant legs. The guy just giggles and giggles, so I put the pizzas down and play with the kittens for a while. He tipped me a 20!
FRIDAY THE 13TH THE REVIVAL!
My SO was delivering boxes of magazines to a small shop. It was really early like 4am, the shop not yet open but he'd leave them round the back by the door. Rolls up, hops out of the van, grabs box and takes it to the spot. Walks back to the van and there was now a man sitting in the drivers seat. It was dark and no one else around so he just yells to him to get out of the van but didn't approach. Next thing he knows the guy is out and running at him with something large and shiny in his hands. SO freaks out and runs, the guy chases him. SO doubled back around, jumped in the van and took off right as the guy caught up and slammed the object into the windshield. It shattered but stayed in place so he couldn't see s* but just drove out of there anyway. Eventually pulled over when safe to find an axe was lodged in the window. A damn full sized axe. He was shaking too much to drive after that so flagged someone down to call the cops. They never found the guy.
HE'S NOT MY DOG!
I pulled up to the house and there was a large German shepherd in the yard (which was fenced in) going nuts, barking and snapping at me. It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes of grappling with this dog to make it to the door, and it runs around the side of the house.
So the folks open the door, pay for the food, and suddenly the dog bursts around the corner of the yard, slams past me and bolts into the house.
He's sprinting in circles, freaking out and knocking stuff over including a nice looking lamp that broke. The people there start losing their minds trying to stop the dog from turning the whole house into rubble.
The one dude asks me "why the hell would you bring your dog with you on a delivery?"
Which was an absolutely bonkers question that let me know this was not their dog. I helped them get it out of the house and they tipped me zero dollars.
TAKE IT OFF!!!
I worked for as a delivery man for a small bakery. We would make custom cakes for anyone and any and all events. This one time I had to deliver a cake that had a penis on it. When I came to the house and rang the bell, this lady opened up drunk as hell. So it was a bachelorette party. This lady just pulled me in with the cake and told me to bring the cake to the middle of the party. The price was 4500 Rupees or around $40 but they made it rain over me. So I had to pick it up and they didn't even give a tip. Then I came back to the bakery and got scolded cause I got late.