It’s sounds like the beginning of a great joke: Did you hear the one about the 3-year-old who bought a pink convertible? Only this was no joke and the mother of said toddler wasn’t laughing when she first heard the news. So how does a 3-year-old buy a pink convertible? Well, over the Internet, of course.
Young Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after pressing a few buttons on his mother’s computer. According to the British media, the toddler submitted a $17,000 bid for the car on eBay. Rachel Neal, the boy’s mother, told local reporters she had left her password for the auction site on her computer and then turned her back for a few minutes.
“Jack’s a whizz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons,” Rachel Neal said. Neal told reporters her son is obsessed with cars and when he saw the Barbie-pink Nissan Figaro on her computer he jumped on a chair and likely used the “buy it now” option to make the purchase.
A few days after the toddler submitted his bid, Neal said she received an e-mail from a local auto dealer (the seller of the second-hand convertible, a man from Worcestershire, England). The man thought he finally found a buyer for his car, while Neal had no clue the transaction took place. Luckily, when the man found out that it was Jack and not his mother who submitted the bid he agreed not to force the sale. He told reporters that he found the humor in the incident and would place the car back on eBay at a later date.
Meanwhile, Neal said Jack has denied all culpability. When she asked him if he had made the purchase he “simply squirmed and muttered, ‘No.’”
I suppose this should be a lesson to me–and the rest of you parents who leave your computers open to certain websites—never underestimate the determination of a toddler.