A Plano family is spending Christmas cautiously walking in and out of their home. The front of it, was nearly destroyed in a crash where the driver took off. Maria Guerrero has the strange set of circumstances that reportedly led to their misfortune.
A bizarre set of circumstances has left a Plano family cleaning up piles of debris and police searching for a hit-and-run driver delivering food to the wrong address.
Melanie Uriegas says she was at work when she got a call from her daughter just before 11:30 a.m. on Friday the 13th about a loud noise and neighbors standing outside their home.
Uriegas assumed it was just construction crews working nearby but rushed home just in case.
“I saw my house and I was like, 'What the heck happened to my house!'” she exclaimed.
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Her ranch-style home of 18 years along Eastcreek Place was trashed.
Witnesses said a stranger smashed into her home’s entryway, the garage door and framing before driving away.
Come to find out, it was a stranger who appears to have put the ‘dash’ in DoorDash, according to Uriegas, neighbors and police.
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“Let’s ask the driver! Where’s the driver? I’d love to talk to the driver,” said Uriegas. “I’d love to see his car. I have questions, what the hell did you do to my house!”
Together, they all pieced together a bizarre chain of events believed to have led to the unfortunate situation.
It began, she says, with a hungry neighbor one street over from hers.
She says her neighbor ordered tacos from Torchy’s Tacos in Richardson through DoorDash, a popular food delivery service app that allows users to track delivery workers’ movements from the moment they pick up the customer’s order.
“He ordered some tacos, saw that they were turning on my street,” said Uriegas.
This kind of mix-up is not in this East Plano neighborhood, likely because of the similar names and house numbers, she said.
It’s so common she and her neighbor one street over have grown used to it and carry on.
But on Friday, Uriegas says that as he’s walking over, he "meets our [other] neighbor who’s actually on the phone with police and all the stories start coming together.”
It’s unclear how or why it happened, but Uriegas, neighbors and police believe the food delivery driver deliberately or accidentally drove over Uriegas’ curb at a high rate of speed, mowing down her potted mailbox, landscaping and slamming into her brick house.
Accidents happen, she says. But in this case, the driver took off despite her next-door neighbor walking outside.
Uriegas says that her door neighbor told her: "I heard a crash I came outside and saw the car driving away and I looked at the guy and I was like are you ok and he just looked at me and drove off.”
The intended customer caught the tail-end of the incident. His tacos were never delivered.
He reported the incident to the food delivery company and has provided police information on the person registered with the company, police confirmed.
Incredibly, as police responded Uriegas said,“As this is happening, my neighbor is still tracking DoorDash on his phone because the order was not canceled, so he can still see the car driving on the app and that was given to the police!”
Unfortunately, no one tracked down the driver at the time of the incident, NBC 5 confirmed.
Police are investigating the incident which could lead to charges for leaving the scene of a crash.
“The food delivery service is cooperating and we are just going to compare our information that we have,” said Plano Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Chapman.
Hit-and-runs involving food delivery drivers are not something that happens often in the city, said Chapman.
Chapman says Plano police have actually responded to several incidents where food delivery drivers have left their vehicles running and doors open while making deliveries to customers' doorstep, only to return and discover their vehicle has been stolen.
The suspect vehicle is described as a baby-blue, older model Toyota Corolla which likely sustained serious damage to the front end or back end.
An officer canvassed the neighborhood for home surveillance videos, according to Uriegas.
For now, the family must wait for evidence to be collected to contact insurance and hopefully, Uriegas says, DoorDash claims department to make things right.
The immediate need involved paying construction experts $800 to ensure the house is structurally safe for the family to live in.
Uriegas is anxious about the thousands of dollars in repairs her family might be billed.
This homeowner is urging DoorDash to make it right for her and her family.
“This is DoorDash, it’s their company, not my problem,” she said. “Fix my house. I didn’t even order the food. We are totally innocent.”
As for the man who smashed her home and dashed away, Uriegas is trying to remember the season upon us.
“Just come clean,” she urges the unknown driver. “It’s Christmas. We should all be looking out for each other.”
NBC 5 reached out to the food delivery company’s media relations department but has not yet heard back.
It is not clear if the company has located the driver who was supposed to deliver the tacos if the driver is a registered food delivery worker, or if they allowed another person to make the delivery in their place.
Anyone with information on the hit and run or the driver is urged to contact the Plano Police Department.
