Poland: Man who ordered 300 pizzas in food-delivery pranks faces up to eight years in prison

Polish Man Detained Over Hundreds of Unpaid Meal Orders and Online Harassment Scheme

Usagevpn.com – Poland – A 23-year-old Polish man now faces up to eight years behind bars after authorities dismantled a scheme in which hundreds of meals — including a single order for 300 pizzas — were placed through food-delivery platforms at the expense of unsuspecting residents. The case, which has drawn renewed attention to the growing problem of malicious use of online ordering services, was investigated by officers from the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime (CBZC) working under the oversight of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin.

The suspect has been remanded in custody for two months while prosecutors build their case. He is charged with stalking, identity fraud, and inflicting significant financial damage on local restaurants through unpaid meal orders directed at random individuals who had no knowledge of the transactions.

A Pattern of Intimidation Disguised as Takeout Requests

What distinguishes this case from ordinary delivery disputes is the deliberate, repeated targeting of specific people. Local authorities noted that several of the order descriptions contained granular personal details about the intended recipients — information that, in their assessment, could only have been known by the victims themselves or by those in their immediate circle. The effect, CBZC stated, was to make the targeted individuals feel threatened, tormented, and subjected to a violation of their private lives.

The orders did not merely identify victims; they carried explicit threats embedded in the delivery notes. Among the threats documented by investigators were references to abducting a minor, setting fire to a notary’s office, and causing a road accident. These were not casual remarks but structured messages woven into the text fields of online ordering platforms, turning a routine pizza or dinner request into a vehicle for intimidation.

The orders themselves also contained threats, including references to abducting a minor, setting fire to a notary’s office and causing a road accident.

Scale and Geography of the Scheme

While the bulk of the bogus deliveries were aimed at addresses in Szczecin, the operation extended well beyond that city. Orders were also placed for recipients in Wrocław, Kraków, and Warsaw, where more than a dozen separate incidents were logged. In every instance, the person named as the meal recipient had not been informed of the order placed in their name.

The financial footprint was substantial. At least one single order exceeded 37,000 zlotys — roughly the equivalent of €8,572. Restaurants across the affected cities were left to absorb the cost of preparing and attempting to deliver meals that would never be paid for, since the scheme relied on pay-on-delivery terms.

Not every order made it to a kitchen. In several instances, restaurants declined to accept the request for practical reasons: the sheer volume of items made efficient preparation impossible. The most extreme example was the order for 300 pizzas, which a restaurant found logistically unworkable and turned down.

Public Figures Used as Cover

Local media coverage of the investigation revealed that the suspect also inserted the personal details of well-known figures from Polish politics and media into the ordering system, listing them as the intended recipients of meals. This layer of fabrication added a further dimension of identity fraud to the charges and complicated the task of restaurants and couriers trying to verify who was actually supposed to receive a given delivery.

Arrest and Evidence

The suspect was taken into custody at his home following a joint operation carried out by CBZC officers together with the Investigative Department of the Municipal Police Headquarters in Szczecin. During the search of the residence, police seized electronic devices and data carriers believed to have been used to place the fraudulent orders.

Why This Case Matters

The incident underscores a vulnerability that has grown alongside the rapid expansion of food-delivery apps across Poland and the wider European Union. Because most platforms allow customers to attach free-text notes to an order — a field originally intended for dietary preferences or delivery instructions — it has become an easy channel for sending unsolicited messages, personal details, or outright threats to strangers. Restaurants, acting as intermediaries, bear the operational cost of preparing meals that were never meant to be paid for, while the named recipients are left to deal with the psychological fallout of being singled out.

Polish criminal law provides tools for prosecuting stalking, identity fraud, and financial harm, and the eight-year maximum sentence attached to this case signals that prosecutors intend to treat sustained, multi-victim harassment via digital ordering channels with the same seriousness as more traditional forms of intimidation. The two-month pre-trial detention further indicates that investigators consider the evidence strong enough to warrant continued custody while the full scope of the scheme is mapped.

For the residents of Szczecin, Wrocław, Kraków, and Warsaw who received uninvited deliveries — or who were named in orders they never placed — the detention marks a first step toward accountability. For the restaurants that absorbed thousands of zlotys in unpaid meals, the question of civil recovery remains open. And for the broader food-delivery ecosystem in Poland, the case is likely to prompt closer scrutiny of how free-text fields are monitored and how pay-on-delivery orders of unusual size are flagged before a kitchen begins cooking.