Four-year-old Noah Ruiz loves two things: Popsicles and Sponge Bob.
And when he discovered both objects of his passion had been combined into one fruity and delicious icy treat, he did the only sensible thing: he ordered them.
To be exact, he ordered 918 of them. From his mom’s Amazon Prime account. Without telling her.
Noah’s mom, Jennifer Bryant, had let Noah use her laptop for remote learning when his iPad wasn’t working. She was busy in another room when Noah evidently navigated his way into her Amazon Prime account, which she shares with her sister who lives nearby.
In retrospect, there were signs something was about to happen.
“He kept saying the number ’51.’ ” she said. “All day he was walking around saying ‘51, 51.’”
But Jennifer didn’t think much of it because sometimes he repeats things: “I really wasn’t surprised because he was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).”
A phone call from an exasperated sister
After that, she got the call.
“She yelled and swore at me and told me, ‘You know, you should stop ordering all this stuff.'”
Three huge boxes, each weighing 70 pounds and needing to be frozen right away, had been sent to her sister’s house.
“I replied, ‘I do not understand what you mean.'”
That is when Jennifer found out she owned 51 cases of Sponge Bob Popsicles, which were worth just under $2,619 each.
At that moment, Noah’s repeated mantra of “51, 51…” began to make sense.
A frozen headache
The ice pops were from a different seller, so Amazon would not take them back. Now that Amazon has talked to Bryant, they have promised to give the money from the Popsicles to a charity of her choice.
Her credit card company is looking into it, but they have not given her a refund yet. This semester, Bryant, a mother of three with big school bills, had no idea how she was going to pay her tuition. It was scary for a moment.
A friend who is also a student at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work set up a Go Fund Me page to help her pay for at least some of the Popsicles.
That is the end of our happy story. (And no, Noah did not get to eat all 918 Popsicles in one big preschool party; they melted in two days.)
Within 24 hours, the Go Fund Me paid for the ice pops, and more donations kept coming in, going far above the original goal.
Jennifer says she will pay for Noah’s schooling and any extra help he needs she will get with the extra money. She really wants to be able to send him to a school for kids on the autism spectrum. Even Noah would like that, but his real dream is to meet Sponge Bob.
