Seven Layer Glitch
November 9, 2022 – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
It was Apollo Pacheco’s lucky day. The luck started in the morning when Apollo’s supervisor told him about winning a $1000 Community Service Grant. The appliance store where Apollo worked liked to spread money around through their employees. Apollo was one of the few people who filled out the grand application form. His one sentence plan was simply to “feed people in need.”
When Apollo found out about the money, he did not worry about how he would spend it. He transferred it to his bank account and considered himself the person in need. One thousand dollars would go a long way toward feeding him.
Apollo’s luck continued in the afternoon when he discovered the seven layer glitch. After delivering a kitchen’s worth of appliances, Apollo and two coworkers stopped at Taco Bell for a late lunch. The three young guys walked into the lobby and chose to use the video kiosks for placing their orders.
Apollo felt especially adventurous as he tapped on the menu screen. He had always avoided the Veggie Cravings section of the menu, but for some unknown reason, clicked on it. At the top of the screen, an advertisement appeared for 7 Layer Nacho Fries Burritos. They were only available for a limited time.
Apollo liked Nacho Fries and he was curious about the Veggie version of the burrito. He clicked on the icon and all of the ingredients appeared. Apollo’s curious mood continued. He wondered what the burrito would taste like without the beans and sour cream. He clicked to remove them. Then he added onions. The normal cost of the burrito was $3.49 plus tax. With the extra onions, Apollo’s price was $3.94. He inserted his credit card into the kiosk and tapped that he did not want a receipt.
Apollo’s coworkers, Brad and Emilio, were waiting for him at a table in the dining room. Sixty second after Apollo sat down, their names were called at the counter. They grabbed their tray of food and ate while Apollo continued to wait.
Brad finished his Crunchwrap Taco before noticing Apollo still did not have his food. “What did you order?” Brad asked.
“One of those Nacho Fries burritos.”
“They must be out of something,” Brad concluded. After another ten minutes, he said, “You better go ask them about it.”
Apollo trudged to the counter and caught the attention of one of the employees. “I used the screen to order. I want to make sure you got it.”
“Are you the 7 Layer Burrito?” the woman behind the counter asked.
“Yeah.”
“We had to make more Nacho Fries. Done in a minute.”
Apollo returned to his seat and waited. Brad and Emilio were done with their food and they looked at Apollo impatiently. The woman behind the counter finally called, “Apollo!” He hurried to the front of the store to find a tray holding seven burritos.
“I didn’t order these,” Apollo said to the woman behind the counter.
“Yes, you did. We had you down for seven 7 Layer Burritos with Nacho Fries,” the woman insisted.
Apollo stared at the burritos. He did not have a receipt to prove what he actually ordered. If he argued about only ordering one burrito, what would they do? Throw the other six away? He might as well keep them all. He picked up the tray and walked back to his table.
“No wonder it took so long,” Brad said when he saw all the burritos.
“I swear I only ordered one,” Apollo replied.
“Did they only charge you for one?” Brad asked.
“The screen said like $4 when I put in my credit card. I didn’t print a receipt. Here, you guys have to eat some of these.”
Apollo passed out the extra burritos before discovering the store had given him the beef version instead of the veggie. They had ignored all his customizations. “How did they screw things up that badly?” Apollo said aloud.
“Maybe you found a glitch in the system,” Brad said excitedly. “I was watching this thing on YouTube about how programmers will put Easter Eggs in their code. If you make specific choices, you unlock a prize. Maybe the extra burritos are your prize.”
Apollo stopped chewing to consider the idea. “If I only paid $4 for seven burritos, that’s like 50 cents per burrito. You think the glitch could be real?”
“Only one way to find out,” Brad answered.
Apollo explained to Brad the steps he had used when ordering. As Brad walked over to a kiosk to try and repeat them, Apollo was left alone with Emilio.
“You know, figuring out the glitch could be some kind of karma,” Emilio said. “Did you do something nice for anybody lately?”
“I don’t think so. Nothing special,” Apollo replied thoughtfully. “But it’s not like I’m a bad person. I probably deserve a glitch just as much as anyone else.”
Brad returned to the table, confident he had exactly repeated Apollo’s steps. A few minutes later, the woman behind the counter called his name. He returned with seven burritos on his tray.
“It worked!” Brad whispered excitedly. “Oh, this is so cool.”
The three coworkers huddled around the table contemplating their groundbreaking discovery. “We can’t use it too much or they’ll get suspicious,” Apollo whispered. “We don’t want anybody changing the code.”
“Maybe we should just keep it between us,” Emilio suggested. “What if we said we could only use it once a day?”
“I’m okay with that,” Brad said. “I’m not sure I want to eat that many burritos anyway.”
“When they’re only fifty cents each, I’ll eat them all the time,” Apollo said enthusiastically. “I’ll take them home and freeze them.”
Apollo, Brad, and Emilio left the store with loaded stomachs and carrying extra burritos. They agreed to treat the glitch like a secret gold mine. They could return and pick up nuggets when they needed them, but the combination to get into the mine would stay only with them.
Over the next two weeks, Apollo mostly ate 7 Layer Nacho Fries Burritos. He returned to the Taco Bell every other day. At first, he went alone, but then he realized the best part of the glitch was showing it off. It was not the sort of thing he could use to impress girls he liked, but Apollo had plenty of friends and relative who were happy to share heavily discounted food.
“So how does it work? What’s the secret?” Apollo’s friends continued to ask him.
He tried to change the subject, but they would not let it go. Apollo wanted to sound clever. The temptation was too great. He shared the combination with his cousin and then his sister. Then he shared it with a couple of friends from high school and an old roommate. Apollo warned them about overusing the code and never telling anyone else. They all agreed to keep it quiet.
Two weeks of solid burrito eating can take a physical toll, no matter how good and cheap the burritos. As Apollo decided he should slow down his Taco Bell visits, he also got the strange urge to check his credit card activity. He pulled up the information online and saw almost exclusively Taco Bell charges. He had expected Taco Bell to appear a few times, but not fifty times. And instead of the $4 charge for a single burrito, he was being charged $20 for every transaction.
Apollo quickly realized that the glitch was not providing extra burritos for free, it was charging their full price to his credit card. And he was not being charged for only his visits. Taco Bell’s computer had kept his card information and he was being charged for visits by everyone who had learned about the glitch. The freeloaders had cost him almost $1000.
Apollo dialed the credit card’s help line. “I’ve got some charges on my card that shouldn’t be there,” he said in a panicked voice to the woman on the line.
“Which charges are they?”
“All these charges to Taco Bell.”
“Was your card stolen?”
“Not exactly.”
“But you believe the charges are fraudulent?”
“Well yeah. I think there was a glitch.”
“So you want to dispute the charges? You think someone was eating at Taco Bell using your card information?”
“More than one person.”
“They were sharing your information? How many people had your card number? From all these charges, it looks like you were feeding the whole city.”
Something in the credit card woman’s words triggered a memory about the $1000 grant Apollo had won. He had claimed he would use it to feed people. The money and the glitch showed up the same day. What had Emilio said about karma? Karma gave you something good when you acted good and something bad for acting bad. Did he deserve something bad for taking advantage of the glitch and keeping that grant money? Was the glitch the universe’s way of making him feed other people like he promised? Everything matched up too perfectly to only be coincidence. If he disputed the charges would karma take money from him some other way? Some worse way?
“Are you still there? Sir, do you want to move ahead with disputing these charges?”
“I was just thinking about that. You know, I was supposed to feed a bunch of people. I guess it happened without me realizing it. I guess I want to keep the charges. Good karma, you know.”
“It’s up to you.”
“But can you do something else for me? Can you cancel that card and send me another one? Looks like I need to make a fresh start.”
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