Prankster Placed Hundreds Of Bogus Food Orders During COVID-19 Pandemic, Arrested

KEY POINTS

Sudeep Khetani, 34, was arrested and charged with cyber harassment
He was accused of placing food orders worth thousands of dollars and never picking them up
He made “harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, and biased comments” to employees when they called after he never showed up

A man was accused of dialing local New Jersey restaurants and pizzerias during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to allegedly place hundreds of orders that he never picked up and for berating the employees when they called him back.

Sudeep Khetani, 34, of South Brunswick, was arrested Tuesday and charged with cyber harassment, South Brunswick Police Department said in a statement.

Khetani placed food orders worth thousands of dollars from restaurants in Middlesex, Mercer, and Somerset counties between Jan. 15 and April 9 while using a voice override service to conceal his original phone number. Police said he wasn’t planning to pick up the orders or pay for them.

According to the statement, when the restaurant employees called him back after he never showed up, he made “harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, and biased comments.” Police said the restaurants suffered huge financial losses as a result of the bogus orders.

During the early stages of the pandemic in the state, many pizzerias and restaurants offered food to the police and local hospitals at their own expense and many residents proposed to pay for the donated food. Police Khetani took advantage of the situation and targeted the restaurants delivering free food.

South Brunswick Township Police Department had identified Khetani as a suspect as early as in April, believing he was living in Orlando, Florida, according to a report by Fox News. Detectives with the South Brunswick police worked with Florida cops to track down Khetani in Florida, where he was on probation for selling fake Disney World Tickets, and arrested him.

“Detective Hoover filed many subpoenas, conducted numerous interviews, and exhausted all investigative means to bring this case to a successful conclusion,” South Brunswick Police Department Chief Raymond J. Hayducka said in a statement. “His hard work put an end to Khetani’s alarming actions.”

In addition to the cyber-harassment charge, Khetani faced a charge of promoting prostitution in connection with an unrelated 2019 incident, according to NJ.com. He was being held at the Middlesex County Jail.