So much for praising the persistence of a food-delivery worker who walked onto the court during a college basketball game in search of his customer.
It was just a prank.
The incident occurred during the second half of Wednesday’s college basketball game between Loyola University Chicago and Duquesne University at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Duquesne’s Pittsburgh campus. The “worker” was carrying an order from McDonald’s and his on-court foray forced a stoppage in the game.
Initial reports indicated the worker was legit and affiliated with Uber Eats
UBER,
-0.89%.
But Austin Hansen, who works on content development for Loyola, doubted that and tweeted as much: “This kid was clearly doing a prank for Youtube/TikTok. You can see that he is wearing a microphone, and tons of students were filming him with their phones.”
In a statement released Thursday, Duquesne University confirmed Hansen’s suspicions.
“This was a prank, planned in advance, done for internet exposure. We determined that the individual was wearing a mic while someone filmed him as he walked on to the court during active play. While the incident may have seemed funny at the time, and no harm was done, we are mindful that incidents like this can put players and officials at risk,” the university said.
The university added that it “has reviewed its safety protocols and tightened its security measures to ensure conditions for our players and fans are safe and meet the standards for the highest level of competition in college basketball.”
The hard-to-fathom incident left the ESPN announcers covering the game finding it, well, hard to fathom.
“Was he going to deliver the McDonald’s to somebody on the court?” one announcer asked incredulously. He later added, “Maybe I’ll put my hand up. I’m getting a little hungry.”
Uber Eats didn’t respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.
Of course, food-delivery workers do receive all kinds of unusual requests. On a Reddit thread, some shared their stories.
“I once delivered food to someone who lived in an apartment directly above the restaurant they ordered from,” one recalled.
Others pointed to how they have delivered orders for soda alone. Or a single cookie.
There are also instances of extreme deliveries. In Block Island, a small island community in Rhode Island, Chinese food has been delivered by plane, for example.
In any event, the situation didn’t seem to faze Duquesne, the home team. It went on to win the game 72-58.
Duquesne is in sixth place in the A-10 through Wednesday, while Loyola, a newcomer to the conference, is at the bottom of the table, in 15th.
