A former delivery driver has pleaded guilty to conspiring with several others to steal over $2.5 million from DoorDash, a San Francisco-based food delivery company, federal prosecutors said.

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty on May 13 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Prosecutors said Devagiri admitted to working with three others and a former employee of DoorDash in a fraud scheme that targeted the company between 2020 and 2021.

In the scheme, the group caused DoorDash to pay for deliveries that never occurred, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said the scheme resulted in more than $2.5 million in fraudulent payments.

Devagiri was arrested and indicted alongside Manaswi Mandadapu, 29; Matheus Duarte, 29; and Hari Vamsi Anne, 30, in October 2024, according to prosecutors. All four were charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Mandadapu pleaded guilty to the charge on May 6, prosecutors said. Duarte and Anne previously pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear in court on July 22, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The former DoorDash employee involved in the scheme, Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn, was charged in a separate indictment in September 2022 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023, according to prosecutors.

Devagiri is expected to appear in court for a status hearing on September 16, prosecutors said. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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Fraudulent accounts, manipulated DoorDash software

DoorDash provides food delivery services to customers who place orders on the platform. Drivers who work for the company fulfill those orders by picking up ordered items from restaurants and other merchants and delivering them to customers.

According to an indictment unsealed in October 2024, the group worked together between November 2020 to February 2021. During that period, Devagiri, along with Mandadapu, Duarte, and Anne, created multiple fraudulent customer and driver accounts with DoorDash, the indictment states.

The group used the fraudulent customer accounts to place “high value” orders from restaurants across Northern California, including Santa Clara County, according to the indictment. They then utilized an employee’s credentials to access DoorDash’s computer systems and software.

The indictment further alleged that the group used the computer systems to manually reassign DoorDash orders placed by their fraudulent customer accounts to their driver accounts. Prosecutors said Devagiri then would report the orders had been delivered on the driver accounts when they had not and manipulated the software to prompt DoorDash to pay the driver accounts for the deliveries that never occurred.

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Devagiri also used the DoorDash software to change the orders from “complete” statuses to “in process” statuses and reassigned the orders to driver accounts that the group controlled, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said Devagiri repeated this process, which took less than five minutes, hundreds of times for many orders.

In total, the group stole over $2.5 million and received payments through bank accounts controlled by Devagiri Mandadapu, Duarte, and Anne, the indictment states.

According to the indictment, the group gained access to the software by using credentials that belonged to Bottenhorn, who was a resident of Solano County, California. He briefly worked for DoorDash in 2020. After pleading guilty in 2023, prosecutors said Bottenhorn admitted to being involved in the scheme to defraud the company.

Devagiri Mandadapu, Duarte, and Anne were all arrested on Oct. 4, 2024, prosecutors said. Devagiri and Mandadapu were taken into custody in Newport Beach and later released on bond. Duarte was arrested in Mountain House, California, and was also released on bond.

Anne was arrested in Cypress, Texas, and was detained in Houston pending further proceedings, according to prosecutors.

When my son was younger, there were times I wondered whether he’d ever stop talking about his interests. From detailed stories of his latest “Minecraft” session to chattering about his favorite Marvel superheroes, it seemed there weren’t enough hours in the day for him to tell me things. But whoever said “the days are long but the years are short” was right, and in a blink I found myself facing my son’s 17th birthday — his last before technically becoming an adult.

My son and I still talk quite a bit, whether discussing horror movies or analyzing his dating life, but between his first part-time job and getting his driver’s license, I see and hear from him less these days. For his birthday, I let him plan the itinerary for a trip to California — just him and me.

For nearly a week, we hit the Universal and Disneyland theme parks, saw movies in historic theaters, and ate lots of cheeseburgers. It was pretty incredible, both to spend dedicated time with him and to see him embrace the things that interest him most.

Embracing his interests over the years helped shape the trip

I’ve learned the best way to stay close to my kids is to embrace what interests them. My son is very interested in film, so when he told me he wanted to “go to the restaurant David Lynch always went to” while we were in Los Angeles, I turned to Google. “Do you mean the Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank?” I asked.

Lynch, the director behind “Twin Peaks” who died earlier this year, was known to visit the iconic restaurant for a coffee and a chocolate milkshake most afternoons, so we did, too. It was a seemingly silly stop, but one that will be a core memory for both of us.

We’ve always enjoyed going to theme parks together

When my kids were younger, we visited Central Florida theme parks nearly every weekend. Now, they have their own lives and social schedules, so we go less frequently. Still, when we talked about a trip to California, my son said, “Can we go to Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood?”

It was a reminder that when you build memories with your kids when they’re small, those things stick. We had a great time on rides at Disneyland and doing a movie studio backlot tour at Universal, things we may not have added to our itinerary had we not gone when he was younger.

He’s developed his own interests, too

My son’s biggest request on our trip was to visit as many historic theaters in California as possible. While staying at Disneyland, we took a drive to Santa Ana to visit an arthouse movie theater he discovered while planning the trip. In Los Angeles, we saw “Sinners” at Universal CityWalk in 70 mm Imax, a filming style my film-enthusiast son said “was the way it was meant to be seen” and something definitely not offered in our small Florida town.

Film is my son’s passion, so I was content to tag along. Part of growing up is learning what makes you happiest, and seeing my kid delight in visiting historic theaters and seeing a movie every single day of our trip made me happy, even if my vacation preferences are more along the lines of lounging poolside and trying distinctive restaurants.

I’m proud I’ve raised such an interesting human being

Our trip wasn’t just movie theaters and theme parks. My son also requested we visit the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and begged to visit stores that sold “physical media” (the film-nerd term for hard copies of movies) so he could add to his 4K Blu-ray collection. He ate 10 cheeseburgers over our weeklong trip, including two visits to In-N-Out Burger, a chain we love but do not have on the East Coast. Though I let him have the reins throughout the trip, I ended up having an amazing time, too.

Our routine has changed over the years, from storytime snuggles and Lego-building contests to college planning and navigating the teenage years. I’m so thankful I took the time to listen when he waxed poetic about video games and comic books for hours on end. Without those moments, he’d probably not include me in his interests today, and his interests are pretty cool, in my opinion.

Blowing-up birds are bewildering a Bay Area ‘burb.

Dozens of birds have met their sudden and violent demise in a California neighborhood in recent months, dropping out of the sky mid-flight and falling dead on city streets and in backyards.

Speculation is running rampant as to the cause of the mysterious deaths, from a serial bird killer on the loose to a rash of electrocutions caused by perching on power lines.

“So when they land and it happens, they just quickly explode and it’s really violent,” Richmond resident Maximillian Bolling told KGO-TV.

“It’s very traumatic,” he added.

A doorbell camera captured one of the unexplained fatalities. A loud popping sound can be heard moments before the bird fell to the ground dead, drawing shocked gasps from horrified passersby.

“It sounded like a firecracker, and a black bird — a starling — just plummeted to the ground,” witness Mark Hoehner told ABC News. “I’ve been under the birds when it happens, and I know where the sound is coming from. It’s coming from up on the pole.”

Neighbors have pointed the finger at a stretch of power line they think may be the culprit, prompting Pacific Gas & Electric to investigate, enlisting the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) to perform necropsies on several of the expired birds.

“They have shared that the birds show no evidence of electrocution, and that their deaths were caused by trauma, potentially from a pellet or BB gun, or slingshot,” the utility said in a statement.

But the explanation stuck firmly in locals’ craw.

“I feel like a BB gun doesn’t make a firecracker noise,” resident Heather Jones told the outlet. “This sounds exactly like a firecracker.”

Other neighbors, like Jan Solomon, also questioned the quasi-official explanation, saying she “can’t fathom” that someone could be so consistently accurate with a pellet gun.

Wildlife officials said in a statement that the investigation remains underway.

“CDFW also received photos of other dead birds found at the location that showed injuries consistent with trauma. The exact cause of the trauma to all of these birds could not be determined.”