NZ child purchases real earthdigger online

by Rich Bowden - May 23 2009, 02:44

A New Zealand couple got an expensive shock this week when they received an e-mail demand for $20,000 NZD (approx. $12,245 USD) for the purchase of an earthmoving digger.

It turned out that their three-year-old child, Pipi Quinlan, had bought the digger on the online trading site Trade Me while her parents slept.

"The first I knew about it was when I came down and opened up the computer," Pipi's mother Sarah told local newspaper the Rodney Times.

"I saw an email from Trade Me saying I had won an auction and another email from the seller saying something like 'I think you'll love this digger'."

Ms Quinlan said she had been looking for play equipment for her child and had accidentally left the computer logged on. Young Pipi, who had only learned to use the computer the previous week, showed great maturity and dexterity and was able to purchase the Kobelco digger with a few well chosen clicks of the mouse.

"When I found an email from a guy who said 'can you deposit the money?' I thought - hang on -- this isn't quite what I expected," Ms Quinlan told the BBC.

"It's been a lot of fun," she added, "she's earned a bit of notoriety."

However, Quinlan also told the BBC she was determined such an incident would not happen again.

"I've taken all my automatic log-ins off anything she could purchase from," she said.

Happily for the Quinlan family, the owner of the digger is not insisting on the sale.

 

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