Indiana DoorDash driver seen on video appearing to spray delivery with ‘irritant substance,’ authorities say
Authorities are investigating after a DoorDash driver in Indiana was captured on video appearing to spray a food delivery with an “irritant substance,” the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office said.
The customer, Mark Cardin, told NBC News that his wife started choking and threw up after she took a bite of the meal last weekend.
There have been no arrests, and the drivers identity has not been confirmed, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
In an interview, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson said authorities are still trying to authenticate the video, though he said he has no reason to believe it is not genuine.
Citing the investigative process, Robinson would not say what steps authorities had taken to determine what substance appears to have been sprayed on the delivery.
In a statement, DoorDash said it had revoked the driver’s access to the platform and is cooperating with law enforcement.
“We have absolutely zero tolerance for this type of appalling behavior,” it said.
Cardin said he and his wife got the delivery from a local fast-food franchise Saturday night while they were watching TV.
After Cardin’s wife retrieved the bag, she took a bite and began choking, he recalled. He looked at the delivery bag, he said, and noticed something red that appeared to have been sprayed on it.
“I definitely inhaled some fumes off of it,” he said.
Cardin said he then checked the video from his doorbell camera.
The brief clip, which Cardin provided to NBC News, shows a female driver approaching his home’s front door and placing a paper bag in front of it.
Moments later, after what Cardin described as a glitch in the app that dropped a few seconds from the video, the driver can be seen spraying something onto the delivery and walking away.
Cardin said his wife’s health improved within 10 minutes. He tried to contact the driver, but the person had blocked him, he said. So he reached out to the platform, he said, and to authorities.
If the allegations are true, Robinson said, the driver could face charges ranging from battery, a misdemeanor, to food tampering, a felony.
Maura Murphy contributed.
