On Saturday night, Keith Stonehouse gave his 6-year-old son Mason his smartphone to play games on so he could watch some TV before putting the boy to bed.
The dad from Chesterfield Township in Michigan was not prepared for what Mason was actually up to while he was occupied watching his favorite shows.
It turns out Mason ordered $1,000 worth of food from Grubhub without asking dad's permission.
When asked why he placed so many orders from several restaurant locations in the area, Mason told his dad:
"I don't know. I was hungry."
You can watch a news report here.
Stonehouse tried to keep his cool after receiving repeating notifications that said "Your order is being prepared" even though he never placed any on the food delivery app.
On the menu Mason planned for the evening was an order for jumbo shrimp from a local pizza eatery, chicken sandwiches from another establishment, and ice cream–dad's favorite–for dessert.
Stonehouse's Ring surveillance footage showed driver after driver dropping off food deliveries on the porch.
"Cars are coming in and cars are leaving the driveway," said Stonehouse of the scene just outside the door.
It didn't take long for Stonehouse to realize his hungry son was the mastermind.
"I looked down at my phone and it said Chase fraud alert: $439 for pizzas."
On top of everything, Mason's generosity shone by his tipping 25% on every order.
Reprimanding Mason was a challenge as all the boy could think about in the middle of dad's lecture was when the pizzas were going to arrive.
"I had to keep stepping out of [his] room and calming myself down. You want to yell at your son, but he's only 6," said Stonehouse.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Stonehouse said he and his wife planned to have a "real talk" with Mason the following day.
They explained to him what he essentially did was stealing from daddy and a portion of the placed orders would have to come from the $150 the boy had in his piggy bank.
Said Stonehouse of draining his son's funds:
"We showed him one-by-one. He was a little devastated but he understood."
All was not lost as the food didn't go to waste.
The family invited relatives over for an impromptu dinner party and a neighbor offered to buy all the jumbo shrimp orders.
They are still eating leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, according to the news outlet. However, Stonehouse refused to soften from looking at his boy's sweet mug.
He remained firm in disciplining Mason and didn't allow him to eat any of the food to teach him a lesson.
He explained:
"We didn't want to glorify this to him. This is not a funny thing."
Stonehouse also told Fox 11 it was his lesson as a father, first and foremost.
"Hopefully parents out there see and learn from this," he said.
When asked to identify the lesson Mason learned, the boy replied:
"They took my money."
Maybe dad learned something from this as well.
Mason recently asked his dad:
"Do I have to start [my piggy bank] all over again?"
Stonehouse answered:
"Yes, Mason. Sometimes in life when you make a mistake you have to start all over."
There was one more delivery from Grubhub the family wasn't expecting to receive.
When they learned about the incident, Grubhub gave the family a $1,000 gift card.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
