{"id":348118,"date":"2025-12-14T11:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T11:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/348118\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T11:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T11:27:07","slug":"doordasher-in-indiana-arrested-for-allegedly-pepper-spraying-delivery-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/348118\/","title":{"rendered":"DoorDasher in Indiana arrested for allegedly pepper-spraying delivery | Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver for the popular food delivery platform DoorDash has been arrested after allegations that she showered an order with pepper spray in plain view of a doorbell camera, sickening a customer and his wife, according to authorities in Indiana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kourtney Stevenson faces counts of felony battery and consumer product tampering, the Vanderburgh county sheriff\u2019s office said in a statement<\/a> on Friday, addressing a case that is bound to be of significant interest to DoorDash\u2019s 42 million or so users.<\/p>\n

Stevenson, 29, allegedly told investigators that she used the pepper spray in question to try to kill a spider that had frightened her, but they did not believe her, saying it was too cold at the time of the delivery for that kind of creature to be out.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for DoorDash said Stevenson\u2019s \u201caccess to the platform has been permanently removed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have absolutely zero tolerance for this type of appalling behavior \u2026 and our team is supporting law enforcement with the investigation,\u201d the spokesperson\u2019s statement added.<\/p>\n

The Vanderburgh sheriff\u2019s office said the complaint that led to Stevenson\u2019s arrest arrived at the agency on 7 December. A man recounted that he and his wife had ordered food through DoorDash shortly after midnight. After ingesting their meal, they vomited while also enduring burning in their mouths, noses, throats and stomachs.<\/p>\n

The couple reviewed their doorbell camera footage and saw a DoorDash courier later identified as Stevenson place their food on the porch. Before leaving, the woman took a small aerosol can attached to a key chain and sprayed a substance in the direction of the food, the footage showed.<\/p>\n

Investigators learned Stevenson\u2019s identity in part through records that they subpoenaed from DoorDash. After detectives reached her by phone, she acknowledged using pepper spray during the delivery that was reported to the sheriff\u2019s office, the agency said.<\/p>\n

But, according to the agency, Stevenson maintained she didn\u2019t mean to spray the food and had instead aimed at a spider because she is \u201cterrified\u201d of such creatures.<\/p>\n

Detectives noted that the low temperature on the night of the delivery was 35F (1.7C). \u201cAt that temperature, outdoor spiders in Indiana<\/a> are not active and would not be capable of crawling on exposed surfaces,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said in its statement on Friday.<\/p>\n

Stevenson initially agreed to meet with the sheriff\u2019s office, though the agency later said she backed out. Detectives subsequently obtained a warrant to arrest her.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Stevenson was reportedly taken into custody by authorities in her home community of McCracken county, Kentucky, which is about two hours away from Vanderburgh.<\/p>\n

She was being held without bail pending extradition to Vanderburgh county, which includes the Indiana city of Evansville. The sheriff\u2019s office said Stevenson was visiting her father in Evansville on the night of the order that she was suspected of tainting.<\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s investigators did not identify the man who reported Stevenson to them or say where the delivered food came from. The KCBD news channel, however, did identify him, saying he was Mark Cardin, who told the outlet that he had ordered from the fast-food restaurant chain Arby\u2019s for him and his wife.<\/p>\n

Cardin said to KCBD that \u201cit\u2019s horrific\u201d to think about all the other ways their food could\u2019ve been messed with \u201cin this day and age\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could\u2019ve been rat poison \u2013 it could\u2019ve been fentanyl,\u201d Cardin told the outlet. \u201cMy wife could\u2019ve been dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderburgh county\u2019s sheriff, Noah Robinson, said his agency pursued Stevenson urgently because \u201cresidents should be able to trust that the food they order for their families is safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone violates that trust and endangers others, we will respond \u2026 and we will pursue charges,\u201d Robinson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver for the popular food delivery platform DoorDash has been arrested after allegations that she showered an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-348118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}