Michigan man says six-year-old son ordered US$1,000 in food from Grubhub

CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -

A Michigan man says he was left with a US$1,000 bill after his 6-year-old son ordered a virtual smorgasbord of food from several restaurants last weekend, leading to a string of unexpected deliveries -- and maybe a starring role in an ad campaign.

Keith Stonehouse said the food piled up quickly at his Detroit-area home on Saturday night after he let his son, Mason, use his cellphone to play a game before bed. He said the youngster instead used his father's Grubhub account to order food from one restaurant after another.

The boy's mother, Kristin Stonehouse, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Grubhub has reached out to the family and offered them a US$1,000 gift card. The company also is considering using the family in an online promotional campaign, she said. Grubhub officials didn't immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comment.

Keith Stonehouse said he was alone with his son while his wife was at the movies when Mason ordered jumbo shrimp, salads, shawarma and chicken pita sandwiches, chili cheese fries and other foods that one Grubhub driver after another delivered to their Chesterfield Township home.

"This was like something out of a `Saturday Night Live' skit," Keith Stonehouse told MLive.com.

He added: "I don't really find it funny yet, but I can laugh with people a little bit. It's a lot of money and it kind of came out of nowhere."

Keith Stonehouse said his son ordered food from so many different places that Chase Bank sent him a fraud alert declining a US$439 order from Happy's Pizza. But Mason's US$183 order of jumbo shrimp from the same restaurant went through and arrived at the family's house.

Stonehouse said it took the arrival of a few orders of food for him to realize what was going on. By that time, there was nothing he could do to stop the orders from coming.

Kristin Stonehouse told the AP that Mason is extremely intelligent and has been reading since he was 2 1/2 years old.

"He's very smart," she said. "He's not your average 6-year-old."

She said her husband had just used the Grubhub app on his phone to order dinner before she left and probably just left the app open. She said her son took the phone, hid in the basement and proceeded to order his feast.

She said that she and her husband had a talk with Mason on Sunday morning and told him what he did was akin to stealing.

"I don't think he grasped that concept at first," she said.

To drive the point home, she and her husband opened up Mason's piggy bank and pocketed the US$115 he had gotten for his birthday in November, telling him the money would go to replenish their accounts. That didn't seem to faze the boy.

"Then he found a penny on the floor and said he could start all over again," she said.

Keith Stonehouse said most of the food went into the family's refrigerators. He said he also invited some neighbours over to eat some of it.

He said that he's heard of things like this happening to other parents, but not at the level he experienced last weekend. He recommends making sure that important apps are not readily available for children to click on when they're using a parent's phone. He said he's changing his password.

"I knew this could happen, but you just don't think your kid is going to do something like this. He's definitely smart enough, I just didn't expect it," Keith Stonehouse said.