A young Black woman was just trying to do her job when she entered the lobby of an apartment complex with a DoorDash delivery in hand.
When she set down the plastic takeout bag on the building’s front desk, however, the white security guard on duty suddenly went off.
Getting into her face and waving his hands dismissively, the security guard launched into a confrontation that was caught on video and quickly went viral on TikTok.
The argument struck a nerve with commenters and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Several noted how quickly the guard changed his attitude when the white recipient of the food appeared in the lobby to retrieve his order. But others argue the security guard was in the right.
For many Black delivery workers around the country, intimidation, threats, and aggression are a regular part of the job, as evidenced by the case of the Amazon driver who was arrested in December 2023 while attempting to deliver a package.
Approximately half of all delivery workers felt “unsafe or feared for their physical well-being” while on the job, and people of color are more likely to experience assault or harassment, according to a 2023 Georgetown University study conducted in Washington, D.C.
It’s no surprise that Black delivery workers are on edge lately, and why so many people have weighed in on this video.
At the beginning of the footage, viewers see the bag of food on the lobby desk and hear the DoorDasher, named Lexie, tell the guard, “I’m gonna get my money because I delivered the food. … He’s somewhere in the building.” The guard, who is presumably paid not to let strangers enter the elevator, becomes increasingly agitated. He refuses to accept the food or notify the recipient, telling Lexie there are 14 floors in the building. She responded, “That’s not my problem, sir.”
Leaving his post behind the desk, he walked over to the DoorDasher and got into her face, “What is your problem? … That’s bullsh-t, that’s bullsh-t. … The guy is not here,” he said.
“Samuel knows his food is down here. … Thank you, sir,” responded the young woman, adding, “If you throw his food out, he’ll know because I’m going to send him a video, too.”
As the two continue to argue, the man who ordered the food, Samuel, suddenly appears in the lobby, and the frustrated DoorDasher quickly defends herself, telling her customer that the security guard was going to throw his food away.
Immediately, the guard tells the resident, “I didn’t say anything.” He then waved his hand and dismissed the woman: “Go away, do not yell at me, go!” As she continued to defend herself — likely so she would not get a terrible review or, worse, be fired — the guard addressed her: “Hey… leave, leave, leave.”
The encounter has left many viewers confused. “Wait, why is he so mad about you leaving food in the lobby?” asked one. “He changed the narrative when Samuel showed up,” another observed. “The tone change when Samuel came, now it’s leave.”
“Samuel needs to eat his food in the lobby and enjoy the show,” quipped one, with another joking, “Samuel standing in the corner like a kid bout to get in trouble.”
Some pointed out that the building could have a policy forbidding the security desk to hold deliveries, but as one noted, “It looks like he requested it to be left at the front desk because he came down to get it.”
People rushed to commend Lexie for her quick thinking: “LMAO not you telling him on immediately.”
“The way you snitched so fast,” said another, “my fav part, good job!”
An increasing number of retail and delivery workers are now wearing body cameras to protect themselves against false claims of undelivered packages or harassment by customers, with Walmart rolling out a pilot program in December, 2024. Could DoorDash be far behind?
In the caption to the video, Lexie wrote, “god finds a way to test my [patience] everyday😂 i say i handled this pretty well.”
