6-Year-Old Michigan Boy Spends $1,000 On Grubhub

At an unassuming house in Chesterfield Township, a suburb of Detroit, the doorbell just kept ringing and the food kept coming. That’s because 6-year-old Mason Stonehouse managed to use his father’s smartphone to go on a $1,000 spending spree, ordering large amounts of foods from a variety of area restaurants. Mason’s father, Keith Stonehouse, was home alone with his son while his wife Kristin was at the movies with some friends. Before he knew it, orders of jumbo shrimp, salads, shawarma, chicken pita sandwiches, chili cheese fries, and ice cream began showing up on his doorstep, all delivered by one Grubhub driver after another. “It was like a Saturday Night Live skit,” said Keith, who wasn’t laughing at the time. He admitted that his anger was on a 9½ out of 10 while it was happening, but the next day it was pretty funny. Keith explained that he had let Mason use his smartphone to play a game for about 30 minutes before it was time for bed. He never dreamed the young boy would click on the Grubhub app and order large amounts of food online. In fact, so much food had been ordered from so many different places that Chase Bank sent Keith a fraud alert, declining a $439 order from Happy’s Pizza. However, the $183 order of jumbo shrimp from the same restaurant went through just fine and arrived at the house. Unfortunately, there was just no way to stop the flood of orders from coming. When all was said and done, most of the food went into the family’s refrigerator. Keith and his wife also invited some neighbors to come over and eat some of the food. Needless to say, Keith has since changed his password.

 

 

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Massive Bald Eagle Surprised Passengers at a North Carolina Airport

Travelers at a Charlotte Douglas International Airport checkpoint got quite the sight when a bald eagle passed through security last week, spreading his wings and showing off. The eagle, named Clark, was heading home to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, after making an appearance at North Carolina’s High Point University to wish its new freshman class luck. That’s when Clark and his handler surprised some unsuspecting travelers and equally stunned TSA agents. Clark, who is a seasoned traveler, is one of only four bald eagles that travel by airplane to different venues throughout the country. He was hatched at the World Bird Sanctuary in 2002 as part of a breeding program, with the goal of releasing endangered birds into the wild. However, Clark was born with scale deformities on his feet that prevent him from being protected during the cold winter. So instead, Clark jumped into flight training and began his career as a flying ambassador. Since then, the eagle has appeared at everything from St. Louis Cardinals baseball games to an event at Boeing.

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How a Long Island Car Crash Saved a Family in Ukraine

At first, Gia Savocchi of Long Island thought the Instagram message she received from a man with a name spelled out in Cyrillic letters was a scam. Then she saw the photos that Serhiy Lutskyi sent of the dark blue 2014 Volkswagen Jetta she had reluctantly sold for scrap after an accident more than a year ago. What she learned next was extraordinary: Lutskyi told her that the junked car had ended up in Ukraine and enabled him and his family to escape the horrors of war. He bought the Jetta online for $2,075 through an auto auction and put another $7,000 into it. Using a translation app, Lutskyi told Savocchi that he tracked her down through ownership papers she had left in the glove compartment of the car. He went on to explain how he had repaired the Volkswagen, put his wife and two children in it, and drove to the Czech Republic. He went on to explain how he took good care of the car and gave it a second life. Savocchi was touched by how her old car had enabled a family to escape being trapped in a war-torn country. As Lutskyi said, “It’s not a car, it’s a story.”

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We've Been Eating Belgian Waffles All Wrong

Ask a random person on the street where Belgium is and chances are they can't tell you that it's a country in Europe nestled between France, Germany and The Netherlands. However, many people will know that this small country’s culinary gift to the world is waffles. The irony of the Belgian waffle's popularity in the United States is that the large, heavily loaded breakfast item that graces so many of our morning menus has little resemblance to the original waffle that hails from Belgium. Actually, the American breakfast version pales in comparison to the waffle sold all over Belgium, where it is a traditional street food eaten with your hands, not a calorie-laden meal served with gallons of syrup. In Belgium, the treat is the waffle itself because they're so well made — they aren't just a vehicle for toppings. Belgian waffles are usually thicker than their American counterparts. These Belgian beauties are made with a recipe that includes yeasted batter and crunchy pearl sugar. Belgian waffles have extra-deep pockets—the better for filling with butter, jam, maple syrup, or whipped cream. They’re sometimes made with egg whites to give them their signature crispy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside texture. They have a lovely golden exterior, making way to an airy inside. The American waffle has a denser texture, like cake. Traditional waffles are often made with buttermilk, which gives them a richer flavor than the light-as-air Belgian variety. American waffles are usually made with a smaller waffle iron that doesn’t make pockets as deep as the Belgian waffle maker. Because of the waffles’ thinner size, they cook faster. We wouldn't dare say one waffle is better than the other — the two possess their own irresistible qualities, and it's important that they both exist. There is, however, something decidedly unique about the Belgian waffle, especially if you travel to Belgium to have it.

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