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PORTLAND, Ore. — A 14-month-old toddler in Oregon managed to buy a car. Of course, she had no idea she was doing it.
Or did she? This is one of those smartphones-gone-wrong stories.
Kids can be busy-bodies. Sorella Stoute sure is.
"She tends to be pretty active," said her father, Paul Stoute.
She loves a super-solid, crash-tested smartphone. And car keys are pretty cool, too.
"You gonna order grandma a Mercedes?" Stoute asks Sorella.
It all added up last month, when dad received notice from eBay congratulating him on his purchase of a gently used 1962 Austin Healey Sprite for just over $200.
She decided, I think, to open the eBay app, and started clicking around and one thing led to another and we own a car.
–Paul Stoute, Sorella's father
"She decided, I think, to open the eBay app, and started clicking around and one thing led to another and we own a car," Stoute said with a laugh.
A "Frankensprite," to be exact. You can imagine mom and dad's reaction when they found out about little Sorella's online shopping spree.
"Panic ... initial panic, just what do we do," Stoute said. "We can't really afford it kind of thing".
But they decided to keep it. Stoute said he'd like to restore it and hopes to have it in tip-top shape someday. He said he may give it to Sorella for her 16th birthday, or graduation.
"I'm just glad she didn't buy the $38,000 Porsche I was also looking at," he said.
Sorella isn't the only kid to inadvertently buy something on a smartphone. Earlier this year, 5-year-old Danny Kitchen from England managed to spend $2,500 in 15 minutes on a zombie iPhone app.
