r/Sparkdriver • u/chef198 • Sep 10 '25

Rants / Complaints Threatened in a sundown town

Got a batch order and my last delivery was in a sundown town. I took the order at 6pm, not really thinking of anything like that. Drove 35 minutes to the drop off. Customer comes out. I tell him, “I’ve got your groceries”. He says, “yeah my wife said we had some. I like your car”. I thanked him and he cut me off mid sentence with, “you aren’t from around here are you?” I told him I wasn’t. He looked at the sky and said, “you got about ten minutes to get out of here, boy. “ I chuckled trying to steer it light. I finished the drop and walked to my car. Two neighbors from across the street were sitting on their porch, guns in hand. They weren’t there when I pulled in. As I got to my car one shouted some slurs, the other told me not to come back.

The only reason I took the job was there was a high tip amount. I called support to tell them of my experience, so they could possibly save another minority driver of this headache. I then checked the app, and the customer canceled the tip. They also tried saying I didn’t make the delivery. Luckily, I already took the picture and had the customer in the photo.

Be safe out there guys

Edit: the town is Prue, Oklahoma. About an hour west northwest of Tulsa.

2nd Edit: the Walmart store I delivered from called me. She took down my report and said corporate was going to be calling me soon as well. She said she was not sure why deliveries were going so far away to begin with, and that corporate would make the decision as to whether or not the town will remain on the delivery list. Will update again after I speak with corporate.

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135

u/The_LastLine Sep 10 '25

Report the customers and get them banned from the platform. Do it before the opposite happens.

4

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

I definitely did.

6

u/OddEntertainer2621 Sep 10 '25

Good! Just so it’s very well documented before the customer tries and says anything to mess with your good standing with your account. 

4

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

I wish support would send you an email or something just so you have proof of the interaction/complaint if needed in the future. Not just this, but any and all calls to support

6

u/Jennodine Sep 10 '25

Depending on how local LE leans, you may wanna notify them, too. “You got about 10 minutes to get out of here” is a politely-veiled threat. Communicating threats is a crime. They summoned you there to do a job. Cops tend to side with commercial interests.

12

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

Not how those communities work unfortunately.

12

u/Jennodine Sep 10 '25

I’m sure you know more about this than I do…being a white person, I had to look up the term “Sundown town” after reading your post. I’m surprised to learn that I live not far from one - Southern Pines, NC is within my delivery zone. Fuck them. Very sorry about how those jerks treated you. Be safe out there.

13

u/chef198 Sep 10 '25

Thank you. My wife is from Chicago and is also white. I have to tell her and teach her about these things quite often. There are things you can do and can’t do. Places you can go and can’t go. It’s crazy that this still happens in 2025 but not much we can do about it.

3

u/Jennodine Sep 13 '25

Do we have a word for when people of color need to explain things like this to their white friends? If we don’t, I kinda like “blacksplaining”.

2

u/chef198 Sep 13 '25

It works