DoorDash driver delivered to an abandoned house late at night. He checked the delivery photo the next morning: ‘I almost threw my phone’

Most DoorDash horror stories involve thefts or swapped orders, but Jess (@scaredwithjess) on TikTok told a tale that would discourage most food couriers from accepting deliveries at night. A DoorDasher accepted an order—what they saw almost made them throw their phone away.

“What would you do if you had a DoorDash order to a house that looked completely abandoned, but when you were standing on the porch, the delivery instructions updated to ‘Bring it inside’?” This was the question Jess posed before she told her story. Most people would book it out of there immediately, no questions asked. But what did this DoorDasher do?

“This happened last fall. I used to do DoorDash at night after my regular job. It was easy money, and I didn’t mind it most of the time,” said the DoorDasher who submitted the story. It was after eleven in the evening when they decided to accept one more order before calling it quits for the night.

“The farther out I went, the fewer lights there were. Houses got farther apart, and there were hardly any cars. When I pulled up, the house looked empty,” they said. There were also no lights on, the grass was overgrown, and the house looked like it had seen better days. The DoorDasher thought the app was wrong, but the details were a match.

They were hesitant to get out at first. But work is work, and the DoorDasher just needed to drop off the last delivery for the day—so they did. They noticed that the front door was slightly open.

The delivery instruction reads, “Leave at door.”

Just as the DoorDasher was about to put the food down on the mat, their phone buzzed.

The instructions changed. It now said, “Bring it inside.”

Did the DoorDash delivery person leave the food inside?

“I looked up at the front door, and it was open a little wider than before now,” the DoorDasher reported. It would have been impossible, because the driver noted that it wasn’t a windy day. There was also nobody else present.

Then, another message came through the app. It reads, “You can come in.” Then, the DoorDasher heard footsteps running from inside the house. That should’ve been the DoorDasher’s cue to sprint, but instead, they took a photo of the property at first—proof that they made it to the location.

The DoorDasher tried dropping the food off outside the house. Then, they heard someone say, “That’s not inside.” Finally, they ran off to their car, shaking from the experience. Before they could even contact DoorDash support, the app sent another instruction change.

It reads, “Hand it directly to the customer.” The DoorDasher looked back at the house, and the door was slowly opening wider. What was waiting for them wasn’t even human.

It was a tall figure with uneven shoulders. The creature had small, bleak, round eyes and a loosely hanging jaw.

Needless to say, the DoorDasher did not go inside and left the food on the porch. They got out of there, but another message came through. It said, “Next time, don’t stop at the door.”

Their eyes weren’t playing tricks

The DoorDasher came back two days later to the same address during daylight. They wanted to prove that the homeowner was a jerk and nothing more. But when they got there, the house looked worse than the last time they’d been there.

Because it was dark back then, the DoorDasher didn’t notice that one of the windows was boarded up. The mailbox was overflowing with letters, and there was trash everywhere. A shutoff notice was taped to the front door, revealing that the house has been without electricity since three months ago.

The DoorDasher’s phone sent a notification. A new order came up from the same address.

“I declined it so fast, I almost threw my phone,” the DoorDasher said. Since then, the DoorDasher stopped accepting deliveries late into the night.

What makes the story believable is the DoorDasher’s explanation. They didn’t want to lose their job, so they needed proof that they tried to deliver the food. In this economy, it’s no surprise that people would take some spooking if it meant keeping their job.

(featured images: Niki Clark, scaredwithjess, and Erik Mclean)

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