DoorDasher comes back to woman's apartment at 3am after dropping of her order that morning: 'I woke up to someone buzzing'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jul 15, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

What would you do in this situation?

Delivery apps are one of the major conveniences of our time. They help us find food when we need it, and sometimes we need it. You come home after a long day of work, and you just don't have it in you to cook. You know that you have stuff in the fridge, but the thought of even getting out the cutting board is more than you can bear. We've all been there. This is when we fire up our apps and put together a delivery order. There is no shame in that. But is there some amount of risk, besides the blow to your wallet? There was for the woman in this story, who shared her story on r/doordash. Sometimes something happens to you that you just need outside feedback on, and this was one of those moments. 

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  • A
    via Erica Marsland Huynh

    An ominous door at night

  • Dasher Came Back at 3am.

    I ordered a roughly $25 dollar breakfast order. Arrived neatly packaged, on time, and tipped the driver $10 PRIOR to delivery. Driver was polite, but I could tell English was not his first language. Exchanged "thank yous" and he left. Saturday around 10am.
    via No-Bike791
  • This morning (Sunday) 3am I woke up to someone buzzing at the main entry downstairs and I went to my doorbell camera (co- op building each one has a camera/mic to the main lobby which has a 2nd set of locked doors to be buzzed through) and it was my Dasher from Saturday morning's breakfast order. He was with two other men and they were speaking Russian? maybe. I don't know.
    via No-Bike791
  • I obviously did not buzz them in. They stayed downstairs for about 7-8 minutes (I am not sure how long they were there before I woke up). I reported it to DoorDash but was too tired to think to record anything. I also called the non-emergent town PD and asked if there was anything they could do with the limited information I had which was
    via No-Bike791
  • basically just my visual description of the Dasher and his name from the app. Technically he didn't really do anything illegal by ringing my bell....so no. Edit: filed an "incident report" and police had patrol cars pass by a few times.
    via No-Bike791
  • Has this ever happened to anyone else before? Edit: so a dasher returning outside of delivery is not normal, as l suspected. I appreciate all the responses and helpful tips... especially the 24/7 DD safety number. Was not even aware that existed. Also learned about some creepy customer behaviors as well. Dashers and customers....be safe!
    via No-Bike791

  • Nothing good happens at 3 am, except for sleeping. You know this to be true, even if it doesn't seem true in the moment. Maybe you've stayed up partying, but the peak is usually at 2 am- be honest. If you're staying up past that, you're trying to recapture something that has already gone by. This is part of what made this poster so worried. Nobody wants to be woken up in the night, especially by somebody they don't know. Everything is a little scarier at that hour, and nobody wants to have to deal with something they didn't anticipate. That's what happened to this woman, though, and she was left feeling unsettled. We forget, with these huge advancements in convenience, that they sometimes come with a price. We're letting people into our homes that we don't have any control over, or any knowledge about. There is a lot of trust that has to go into something like that. And when that trust is broken, we can be left feeling like we shouldn't have trusted in the first place. Keep reading to see what happened in this particular instance. 

  • Commenters weighed in on this uncomfortable situation.

    Short-Comedian-9071 I've never used dd as a customer, only as a dasher but yikes, that would make me a little nervous. I definitely would call dd support and explain the situation to them and have them block that dasher from getting your orders ever again.
    via Short-Comedian-9071
  • Cheezburger Image 10647642112
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A woman is seen through her door opening at night

    Subjects are models.

  • Grand-Unit-9920 For him to come back at that time & especially to not be alone, yeah that's super odd & unusual!
    via Grand-Unit-9920
  • Wormy_Furry That's not good at all. Surely your building has a security camera that recorded them right?
    via Wormy_Furry
  • Krombopulous Michael0 Guy gets a $10 tip and still brings kgb back to your house... disgraziad
    via KrombopulousMichael0
  • Shot-Sympathy-4444 I wonder if someone left them a bad rating or made a false report and they thought it was you. There's no good reason to return to a customers home at 3 am. That's scary and I'm sorry that happened.
    via Shot-Sympathy-4444
  • Emeah824 It might be a good idea to change your app name to a male one and only choose "leave at my door" from now on to avoid creepy male dashers from getting their eye on you
    via Emeah824
  • monstermorales This is so scary! I'm so sorry this happened to you. Just a tip overall, when I lived alone and ordered dinner, I'd leave a pair of dirty, large men's work boots by the door, so when I'd have food dropped off at my door, they'd assume a large male was inside.
    via monstermorales
  • AbsoluteBabyMonae Wow, havent had this happen before. As a Dasher, I've had men ask me to come into their house to "chill" and another offered me $$ to spendntime with him.
    via AbsoluteBabyMonae
  • Stay away of your surroundings, get mace or a razer for protection. They'll definitely be back and will likely harm/ assault you. There isn't any reason he should've returned & to do so 3am with 2 other men!! You're in danger.
    via AbsoluteBabyMonae
  • Suitable-Leave-1820 I'm a Dasher, I'm gonna tell you right now. I've been to some pretty sketchy neighborhoods at 3am and even then I've never done this. Definitely weird and I would report them to the police. They were not there for benevolent reasons.
    via Suitable-Leave-1820
  • Maximum_Employer5580 after the fact the cops wouldn't have done anything but if I saw a dasher buzzing at my door at 3 am, well after my delivery was made, I'd have called the cops for 3 guys I didn't know nor had any reason to be buzzing my door in the middle of the night
    via Maximum_Employer5580
  • DoctorSwimming2958 This is super super creepy! I can't think of anything they could have possibly have been doing there other than bad intentions. Nobody is doing anything good or productive at 3am.
    via DoctorSwimming2958
  • Someordinaryguy1994 The only 2 times I've returned to a doordash location. Is 1, i took a dash at a later date, and it just happened to go to the same place. 2, when it was in my neighborhood and there was a garage sale.
    via Someordinaryguy1994
  • LionFyre13G Even if the police can't use the footage, I think it would be helpful to you to
    via LionFyre13G
  • _tribecalledquest I never had delivery issues but changed my name to the male version and now I definitely don't have those weird dashers that hung around too long anymore, so I guess it worked.
    via _tribecalledquest
  • theMightBoop You should have called the police emergency number. After you have the police report call DD customer support. Some of you are way too non chalant about this.
    via theMightBoop
  • KickBlue22 Please sleep somewhere else tonight, and indeed maybe for a night or two... friends place or motel or somewhere.
    via KickBlue22
  • greenleah07 This happened to me a couple weeks ago! They put in my guest code at the gate (which calls my phone and I need to buzz them in) TWICE at 4am! I don't let them in.
    via greenleah07
  • Strange-Guidance-236 A similar thing happened to me. I lived in a gated apartment complex where you have to request door access and be buzzed in by the person in the unit. I had DD delivered without issue rated him 5 star and tipped. Then late that night I got an alert someone was asking to be buzzed in. I went to look on the camera and it was him! | accidentally pressed the "let in" button out of relflex habit LOL.
    via Strange-Guidance-236
  • I was like cr p! And he came up to my door I watched him out the peephole. He knocked on the door like 20x and then walked back and forth for a bit waiting. Then he left, but I was like he doing and WHY. It was so weird. is
    via Strange-Guidance-236

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doordash creepy food order food delivery living alone food weird delivery
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