When Nick Simpson saw a delivery driver with someone else’s order on his doorstep, he didn’t think much of it. Inside the bag, mysteriously addressed to ‘Spike’, was an unfilled toasted sandwich, and a bottle of Coles-brand water.
It wasn’t until the next morning on his way to the gym that he noticed the bag was still there despite having told the driver the order was not his. It begged the questions: Why was it left on his doorstep, was this a cheeky publicity stunt and who orders a toastie without cheese?
Cheeseless and cheerless: the unfilled toasted sandwich delivered to Nick Simpson.
But Simpson is not alone, it seems. Unfilled toasted sandwiches – bereft of butter, cheese or any regular sandwich filling – are popping up on doorsteps across Melbourne, baffling residents and leaving police mystified.
The deliveries have been reported from North Melbourne all the way to Dandenong.
Rather than being grateful for a freebie, recipients have been left underwhelmed – with an empty, cheerless, cheeseless toasted sandwich and a bottle of water or soft drink in a brown paper bag.
Simpson, who lives in South Yarra, said his doorbell rang about 8.15pm on Sunday when he was at home with his fiancee and her friend. The driver who made his delivery appeared to be a legitimate delivery driver using a food-delivery app, he said.
“It was just odd because it was to my address, but there was someone else’s name on the package, which was ‘Spike’, which was also quite odd because it’s not a very common name,” Simpson told The Age.
“I basically said to him, ‘it’s not mine, maybe call the person whose account it’s under’, and that was that.
“I thought he left [with] the package, but it wasn’t until the following morning when I went to the gym that I noticed the package was just left at the front door.”
The disappointing delivery left on Nick Simpson’s doorstep.
Simpson captured the interaction through his doorbell’s video camera and was baffled by where the order could have come from. No receipt was attached to the brown paper bag.
“I’m still a little bit worried that maybe people are trying to case out houses, but I know, from what I’ve heard, that no one has actually been robbed that did have a paper bag dropped off so far, which I suppose is a little bit reassuring,” Simpson said.
“But I’m definitely activating the alarm when I leave the house and making sure all the windows and doors are locked just to be extra safe. It’s just the uncertainty of not knowing what it is.”
Coles-brand water bottles have been found in some bags, but the supermarket giant says it has nothing to do with the deliveries. Nor does Uber, but it says it is keeping tabs on the issue.
The mystery, dubbed “toastie gate”, emerged publicly on Friday when listeners alerted 3AW radio host Jacqui Felgate.
Some residents are finding the toasties on their doorstep some time after they’ve been delivered, while others report a back-and-forth with drivers, insisting they are not their orders.
Victoria Police is also confused.
“Police are aware of food items being left outside properties in South Yarra,” a police spokeswoman said.
“At this stage, it is unclear where the food has come from, and no offences have been detected.”
It’s unclear just how many Melburnians have received the deliveries.
Scam Assist head of fraud Simon Smith suspected they could be part of a “brushing scam”, with a driver potentially using the deliveries to increase their rating. Brushing scams involve marketplace sellers posting low-value items to random customers to increase their recorded output, he said.
However, recipients have reported different drivers making the deliveries.
“Food is a bit interesting, and so it seems like it might be some sort of a scam that’s happening maybe at a driver level,” Smith told 3AW.
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