The Last Word: Southlake Police Innovate Community Relations with Emergency Uber Eats Delivery

“Their driver had been in a crash, and their hopes for that scrumptious ‘great hibachi style fast food at a fair price’ were being quickly door dashed.”

Southlake Department of Public Safety
.…posting on Facebook about two Southlake police officers who stood in as Uber Eats delivery people after the company’s driver had a car crash.

Well, that’s one way for a police department to innovate community relations—while helping a gig worker get his job done.

When an Uber Eats driver was involved in a car crash in Southlake recently, the city’s police and fire departments raced to the scene. The driver turned out to be OK, but was unable to finish delivering an order of fresh-grilled hibachi from Hashi Japanese Kitchen. That’s when Corporal Tejada and Officer Grace stepped up to finish the job for the gig worker—and in a sense, gig workers everywhere. 

Whoever handles the social accounts for Southlake DPS waxed poetic on Facebook about the hibachi handover, offering yet another example of innovation—this time on how to turn a fender bender into a potentially viral social media post.

Our friend Paola and her family were HONGRY the other night,” the post begins. “With time short, they decided to order some Hashi Japanese Kitchen hibachi from one of our neighboring towns. We know, we know, why get hibachi delivered when the iconic hibachi cooking performance is 80% of the reason you have hibachi?!”

“As their Uber Eats driver took increasingly longer, they began to wonder what was up,” the post continues. “As Paola and her family probably sadly and wistfully stared at an empty dining table adorned with spatulas and chef’s hats and one of those awful outdated water toys where you pull down the doll’s pants and it sprays water, there was a knock at the door. WHO COULD IT HIBACH-BE?!”

It was, of course, Tejada and Grace. It turned out to be a good day for Uber Eats and Hashi Japanese Kitchen (all that free publicity playing out on WFAA and other places, including right here). A good day for a gig worker, who turned out to be all right. And heck, a good time for us all.

You can see the Southlake DPS Facebook post—and read more of the writer’s hibachi-imaginings—by going here.

For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.

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R E A D   N E X T

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  • In his lab at the BioDiscovery Institute, Henard engineers methanotrophic bacteria to convert methane gas into bioplastics, biofuels, and other products. While they're at it, the methanotrophs also consume carbon dioxide, another key ingredient causing climate change. With a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the Agile BioFoundry, a national labs consortium, Henard has begun a three-year study into the beneficial bacteria, which can lead to a more sustainable way to produce fuels, plastics, and chemicals than by using petroleum.