![]() ![]() Indeed, a resident in Highland Park previously told The Times that she and neighbors had pondered “doing a little podcast” about the episode. Older also emphasized a positive that had come out of the situation for both Highland Park and Westwood Hills: the strengthening of neighborly bonds, one unwanted McDonald’s McCrispy at a time. “There are the people who are kind of trained, ‘Yeah, of course they are going to try to come get our stuff.’ And the people who, ‘Our stuff isn’t that great - it’s fine - why would someone want it badly?’ ” do we feel threatened by anything unknown?” she asked. Older was also struck by the differing reactions. There is something going on here that’s worth something in either money or satisfaction. “Somebody is doing something, and it’s hard to explain,” said Older, a faculty associate at Arizona State University. It’s “mostly something that’s not terrifying,” said sociologist Malka Older, author of the science fiction novel “Infomocracy.” This is, after all, a whodunit that’s centered on free food. Among the explanations floated were those focused on the deliveries being the product of a university psychology experiment, a GPS glitch, a marketing ploy or a phishing scheme targeting drivers.Īlthough getting to the bottom of the Uber Eats mystery may seem unimportant - especially given everything else that is going on in the world - the fact that the stakes are so low may be what makes it such an irresistible topic of speculation. But there was no shortage of fresh conjecture. The resident, Tegnazian said, wondered whether the orders, which were paid for and in the names of other people, were being sent “as a way of casing houses, to see if anybody was home for a possible burglary.”įor some of the armchair detectives in Westwood Hills and Highland Park who’ve concocted elaborate theories to explain the avalanche of unwanted food, the burglary-ring hypothesis seemed to be out, and it was back to the drawing board. But in Westwood Hills, an affluent neighborhood nestled between the UCLA campus and the 405 Freeway, the free McNuggets were hardly just free McNuggets.Īs deliveries from McDonald’s, Starbucks and other restaurants piled up on people’s doorsteps in late January, Terry Tegnazian, a member of the board of the Westwood Hills Property Owners Assn., began hearing from worried neighbors, including one man who thought there could be “something nefarious and criminal going on.” In Highland Park, the errant orders were mostly met with bemusement, as The Times previously reported. roads - and an income bracket or two - Westwood Hills and Highland Park may not seem to have a lot in common.īut earlier this year, the neighborhoods were bound by a strange phenomenon: Days and days of unwanted food deliveries from Uber Eats. ![]() Separated by about 16 miles of traffic-snarled L.A. ![]()
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