An Indonesian teenager took pranking to the next level, though it came at the expense of his neighbor and hundreds of hard-working food delivery drivers.
A 14-year-old teenager, identified by his initials FAF, made headlines in the country after he was caught making 185 fake food delivery orders through Grab Food in a span of three weeks. FAF, who lives in the Grogol Sub-district of the Sukoharjo Regency in Central Java, put in random addresses for each order and was not caught until this weekend.
According to the Grogol Police, FAF was only caught when he had several orders delivered to his 60-year-old neighbor, Maryanto.
“On Sunday night, Maryanto received food delivery from Grab, 20 boxes of chicken rice from Popeye [Chicken Express]. Maryanto didn’t order the food, but because he took pity [on the driver], he paid for the chicken rice and distributed them to poor people,” Grogol Police Chief Didik Noertjahjo told Kompas yesterday.
The next day, FAF made another fake order on Grab Food to be delivered to Maryanto’s address, this time eight boxes of serabi (rice flour pancake) worth IDR224,000 (US$15.76).
Maryanto once again paid for the serabi but complained to the driver that somebody was pulling a prank on him. Later in the evening, bread was delivered to Maryanto.
“He didn’t order the food, but he was sent food again. After hearing Maryanto’s complaint, the Grab driver called his friends and told them that he had been deceived by someone who used his address,” Didik said.
The drivers tracked down FAF using the Grab app and notified neighborhood officials. Dozens of Grab drivers and officers from a local police station went to confront FAF at his house, and the teenager confessed to making 185 fake food delivery orders.
FAF was not criminally charged, but his phone was confiscated by the police in the hope that he would not pull the prank again.
