It's no secret babies and toddlers love phones and practically make a beeline for them whenever you've accidentally left yours unattended. Mostly, they just love to swipe around on them and stare at their own reflections in the camera. And for the most part, it's all good and harmless fun — until they accidentally snap a selfie of you while you're breastfeeding and send it to the family group text. Or, if you're Isabella McNeill, maybe the fun isn't over until your toddler accidentally orders a $400 couch on Amazon, unbeknownst to you.
McNeil told NBC San Diego that when she got an alert saying a couch had been shipped to her home, she was dumbfounded.
"I thought, 'Did I buy a couch in my sleep?"" she recalled.
Slowly but surely, she pieced it together and realized who the culprit was: her 2-year-old daughter.
But by then, it was already too late — the couch was on its way, and she couldn't cancel the order. (Ha! Well, well, well … how's that for a kick in the pants?)
It didn't take long for McNeil to retrace her steps and realize how it happened.
Because she'd been browsing Amazon for couches earlier that day, her toddler had most likely stumbled upon the app and unintentionally ordered it using Amazon's handy "1-click" ordering feature. It's oh-so-handy when you're in a hurry, and apparently, oh-so-dangerous if you've got a tech-savvy toddler in your midst.
Before long, the couch had arrived at her doorstep -- and proved to be a real pain in the butt to return.
After learning that she'd be socked with a $79 restocking fee just to return the tufted gray couch — plus $100 in shipping fees — McNeil opted to take a different approach. She's now selling the thing for $300 on OfferUp, and crossing her fingers that it goes quickly.
And yet, this isn't the first time a toddler has somehow managed to rack up a hefty bill while tinkering around with a parent's phone.
In 2013, a baby got ahold of her dad's cellphone, wound up on eBay, and somehow made the winning bid on a 1962 Austin Healy Sprite. In other words: a baby bought a CAR.
Then in 2016, Felicity Sadler-Kean shared with Metro UK that while leaving her phone unattended, her 1-year-old daughter managed to purchase a "space hopper" toy, a 39-lb. bag of brown rice, 12 jars of peanut butter, 48 lbs. of teddy bear stuffing, and a Justin Bieber cutout (just to name a few items).
"You would think I’d learn not to leave my phone around or put a passcode on it," she said at the time.
(Yes, you would!)
But it's not just toddlers who are guilty — there was also that time back in 2013 when an 11-year-old made headlines for racking up a $22,000 phone bill while his family was on vacation. (Apparently, he was an avid texter and unfamiliar with a little thing called data roaming.)
Gulp.
As for McNeil, it seems she's pretty amused by the whole thing — along with the rest of the internet. Now if only someone would bite on her OfferUp page …
