CityNews – 9th March 2020, a first year student at a Chiang Mai university ordered food delivery from the Food Panda app this weekend only to find herself being sexually harassed by the delivery man.
After ordering some food off the app, the student reported that she received a message from the driver saying that he had arrived and that he would come up to deliver food to her room, going on to ask to use her toilet. She texted him back telling him that there was a toilet downstairs that he could use and that she would come down [from her dorm room] to collect the food. He insisted that he would come up to her room and asked to use the toilet repeatedly. When she told him politely that it was not convenient, he wrote back to tell her that he felt horny, using a very vulgar term for the word.
The student, 19, who wishes not to be named, said that she was in shock after receiving the post explaining that she didn’t go down stairs and therefore never met the delivery man nor had any further communication with him. She wasn’t sure whether to report this to Food Panda or to the police, so instead posted it on social media.
The student later told reporters that she began to get suspicious when the app showed that the driver had yet to arrive at her condo, yet he was already texting her to tell her that he was there. He also kept telling her that he needed to come up to her room to make the delivery, even though she normally goes down stairs to collect it. When he asked to use her toilet repeatedly he told her that he had a stomach ache and was desperate.
She said that she was very shaken and afraid after this incident and felt sexually violated. She then went on to say that she was later contacted by Food Panda who informed her that the staff in question had been fired. Food Panda had also reported the incident to the police, assuring her that this kind of incident will not happen again. She was also offered gift vouchers by Food Panda and asked to remove her post from social media.
Needless to say this is a rare incident and an aberration but it is good to see how sensible this young student was and it is best to be cautious at all times when interacting with strangers, especially if you are a woman and it is late at night, as this incident was.