Ex Ottawa Uber driver admits to giving 12-year-old girl 'secret admirer' candy, prowling house after delivery

Detailed summary

A 45-year-old former Uber Eats delivery driver has pleaded guilty to harassing a 12-year-old girl with "secret admirer" messages and candy, as well as prowling her home at night,…

A 45-year-old former Uber Eats delivery driver has pleaded guilty to harassing a 12-year-old girl with "secret admirer" messages and candy, as well as prowling her home at night, after he met her while dropping off an order she had placed.

Adam Daniels sat hunched forward and looking down at the floor in the glass-walled prisoner's box of an Ottawa courtroom on Tuesday, as a Crown prosecutor read out an agreed statement of facts against him.

The 12-year-old girl was having a sleepover with a friend on Aug. 4, the Crown said, when at 2 a.m. they placed an order for Wendy's desserts called Frosties. Daniels was working for Uber Eats that night and made the delivery to the girl's home in Kanata.

At her door, Daniels told the 12-year-old she appeared "very mature," the Crown said. (The girl cannot be identified due to a routine publication ban.)

At 4 a.m. that same morning, the girl noticed a paper bag had been left at the front door. It was addressed to her from a "secret admirer." Her mother thought a friend of the girl might be playing a prank on her and installed a security camera the next day, the Crown told court.

On Aug. 16, another brown paper bag was discovered at the front door — this one containing $20, more candy and Daniels's phone number. When the girl's mother checked the new security camera's footage, the girl immediately recognized the man who dropped off the bag as the Uber driver who had delivered the Frosties the night of the sleepover, the Crown told court.

The girl's mother contacted Ottawa police and told the story to CTV News to warn the public. Meanwhile, the 12-year-old girl felt unsafe at the home she shared with her mother and opted to move in with her father, the Crown said.

Court heard Tuesday that Daniels recognized himself in surveillance footage on social media, called his estranged brother about it and told him, "I f--ked up." Thinking he was wanted on a warrant, he turned himself in to police and was arrested Oct. 2.

After Daniels pleaded…

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