Taco Bell worker and popular creator Caleb Lennon (@caleb_lennon) has shared yet another tale from the pages of his Live Mas storybook. This time, he warns that he fell for a delivery order scam—and that gave viewers some ideas.
In a viral TikTok clip that’s accrued over 530,000 views, Lennon crafts a custom menu item while answering questions about scams customers have tried to pull at the fast food chain.
He details how one drive-thru customer pulled a con job involving DoorDash ordering that ultimately ended up getting him two meals for the price of one. Numerous TikTokers who saw the employee’s video applauded the scam artist’s finessing tactic, with some even stating that they intended to adopt it themselves.
Lennon begins his video by preparing some food at Taco Bell, presumably an off-menu creation he whipped together himself. He grabs a tortilla and places it in a mold that holds the flattened soft tortilla in place, creating a U-shape. He then dips the mold into the fryer, making it crispy before removing it from the hot oil.
He then melts up some cheese on a sheet of cooking paper and begins to stick the hot tortilla onto it, before placing one of the chain’s new empanadas inside of the concoction which he lines with sour cream, more cheese, jalapenos, and avocado salsa. He closes it up and takes a bite as he begins to talk about the DoorDash con a customer pulled on the location he works in:
“Has my Taco Bell ever fallen for scams? Unfortunately, this has happened a couple of times,” he reveals. “As a matter of fact, recently, we fell for a very small scam.”
Lennon says they typically go by the honor system when it comes to delivery orders at Taco Bell. Sometimes, this can backfire.
“So when people come to pick up DoorDashes, they drive through the drive-thru or come inside and say, ‘Hey, I’m picking up a DoorDash for David’ or ‘I’m picking up a DoorDash for Caleb.’ And then we give them the bag, the drinks, they go on about their day, deliver their food,” he says. “But a couple days ago something went wrong with this process.”
Lennon then shares how this particular scammer got away with it.
“Someone came through and was like, ‘Hey I’m picking up a DoorDash for Jerry.’ All seems well, we hand out the order, they leave, then five, ten minutes later someone comes through and says, ‘Hey, I’m picking up a DoorDash for Jerry.’ We tell them we already handed it out. Somebody already came and got it.”
This driver then shows proof that he’s supposed to pick up the order.
“But he pulls up and shows on his phone that he is the one that’s supposed to pick it up,” he says. “So basically, Jerry came and picked up his own food, that way when the DoorDasher brought it he would get it twice. If only we had realized this before making the food the second time.”
Numerous commenters who replied to Lennon’s video applauded Jerry for his persistence and ingenuity regarding his scam.
“Jerry smart af,” one person penned.
Another wrote: “W method.”
Someone else joked that Lennon sharing the story about the scam ultimately helped them secure a technique they would probably employ in the future: “Thanks for the idea.”
@caleb_lennon I made a beautiful item in this video.
♬ original sound – Caleb
Other theories about Jerry’s scam, however, also populated the comments section of Lennon’s video.
One person believed that the blame was being wrongly placed on Jerry’s shoulders and that the driver was the one doing the scamming all along: “Or the driver picked up the food and canceled the order and took it ..”
However, one viewer who said they were a DoorDash driver explained how the double food handoff could’ve been an honest mistake and one caused by DoorDash’s algorithm: “Sometimes doordash accidentally gives multiple dashers the same order. this has happened at the restaurant i work at we had like 5 different dashers come in for the same order bc of a technical issue.”
This sentiment was echoed by someone else, who said, “Or doordash gave the order out twice that’s happened to me i work at cfa and it happens a lot! i’ve also doordashed and had it happen lol.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to DoorDash and Taco Bell via email and Lennon via TikTok comment for further information.
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