A DoorDash driver accused of dousing a customer’s order in a substance in Indiana told authorities that she had been trying to target a spider with pepper spray, officials said Friday.
Kourtney Stevenson, who was captured on the customers’ doorbell camera using the spray while making a delivery in Evansville on Dec. 7, told detectives with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office that she is “terrified of spiders,” the agency said in a news release.
“The overnight low was 35°F,” the release states. “At that temperature, outdoor spiders in Indiana are not active and would not be capable of crawling on exposed surfaces.”
Stevenson, 29, was arrested after she canceled an in-person interview with the detectives, the agency said.
She faces four felonies — two counts of battery resulting in moderate injury and two counts of consumer product tampering, the sheriff’s office said.
Stevenson, who told investigators that she was visiting her father in Indiana at the time, is being held without bond in Kentucky prior to her extradition to Indiana, according to the sheriff’s office.
It wasn’t immediately clear if she has a lawyer who can speak on her behalf.
In an earlier statement, DoorDash said it had revoked Stevenson's access to the platform.
“We have absolutely zero tolerance for this type of appalling behavior,” the company said.
The customer whose delivery appears to have been sprayed told NBC News that his wife started choking and threw up after she took a bite of the meal last weekend.
“Residents should be able to trust that the food they order for their families is safe,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson said in a statement included in the release. “When someone violates that trust and endangers others, we will respond with urgency and we will pursue charges.”
