6-Year-Old Uses Sleeping Moms Thumbprint To Buy $250 Worth Of Gifts On Amazon

[yuiyoshida]

Sick of trying to be good all year just so Santa will deliver your presents? Well, one sneaky 6-year-old from Maumelle, Arkansas found a clever way around that problem. She simply used her sleeping mom’s thumbprint to access Amazon and buy herself $250 of Christmas presents instead!

Little Ashlynd Howell waited for her mom Bethany to nod off while watching a movie together before embarking upon her crafty scheme. Using her mom’s thumbprint to unlock her phone, she opened the Amazon app and proceeded to buy herself 13 different Pokémon toys. When Bethany saw the order notifications the next day, she thought she’d been hacked until she asked her daughter if she knew anything about it. “Yeah mommy, I was shopping!” said Ashlynd according to the Daily Mail. Her mom was only allowed to return four of the items, but Ashlynd still ended up getting way more for Christmas than Santa intended!

6-year-old Ashlynd Howell decided to make her own Christmas extra special this year.

She waited for her mom Bethany to fall asleep, then used her thumbprint to buy 13 Pokémon valuing $250 on Amazon!


When her mom saw the order notifications, she thought she’d been hacked until she asked her daughter if she knew anything about it,

more...
http://thelightmedia.com/posts/35108-6-year-old-uses-sleeping-moms-thumbprint-to-buy-250-worth-of-gifts-on-amazon

[AngryAmish]

1. You mean six year old genius.

[lunasun]

3. Her mom has to pay for what she can not return

Wonder how she will rip off the mom next. Mom looks proud though...

[xor]

32. She probably finds it cute and fairly harmless now

but let's see how see she feels eight years from now when it's thousands of dollars. Not saying the kid will end up like that, but it is one of those things that seems like setting the right tone early is probably key. All this attention seems a bit like reward for the girl's actions. That's assuming it's not just a ploy on the the parent's part in some way. Either way I don't think it's good for the kid (despite finding it amusing as someone observing from the outside)

[tblue37]

12. If she were American she would be a Republican. nt

[usedtobedemgurl]

23. She is American....

she is from Arkansas.

[tblue37]

37. Oh--I saw the fact that it was reported in a British paper and wrongly assumed she was British. nt

[tblue37]

38. self-delete dupe. nt

[Boxerfan]

2. Future Bank manager more likely...

And as a parent ......

I'd be sleeping with one eye open were it possible.

[haele]

4. No. Quit praising the kid for cleverness when she was stealing from Mom.

Whatever couldn't be returned from Amazon would have gone directly to Toys for Tots - and if she had done this prior to Christmas, any "Santa" gifts would have gone there too (on edit - don't take away gifts from family, just the "you've been a good girl" extra gifts). No matter if sneaking a $250.00 purchase would have been like sneaking $2.50 from Mom's purse to go down to the convenience store with friends and buying a 99 cent drink and a candy bar.

And if I were mom, I would be taking the little sneak down to whatever community center serves homeless families to help out with weekend set-up or feeding for the next two months rather than let her go out and play with friends.

I did something selfishly stupid like that when I was 7 - shoplifting some Jolly Ranchers at a corner store on my way back from first grade. I had to both go back apologize and I had to help out at the store (stocking low items and picking up litter other kids made) for what seemed like an entire afternoon with Mom watching. Never shoplifted again no matter what my "friends" tried to peer pressure me into, even in High School.

Sorry - if she's old enough to start figuring out plans and consequences (which this action shows), and starts acting like it's all about her, she needs to be taught it's not all about her immediately, instead of her bad behavior being thought "cute" and her friends being all jealous because she's on the news being cute.

Haele

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Bingo...

Mom sent the wrong message, and may end up raising a delinquent. That kid is apparently pretty clever.

[Ms. Toad]

10. That would have been my reaction, as well.

Waiting until Mom was asleep so she could use her fingerprint to unlock the phone demonstrates she knew what she was doing, and that Mom would not have given her permission had Mom been awake.

[tblue37]

13. + a brazillion. She is obviously very proud of herself, and why not, when she gets praised

rather than corrected for such terrible behavior.

[justhanginon]

28. Brings back memeories of my own aborted criminal career. When i was about that age

some 70+ years ago I took an eraser top that fits on top of a pencil. Not sure how my parents found out, probably ran my mouth about it, but they did find out and I caught hell for it. My dad took me back to the Woolworth's Five and Dime, asked for the manager, I confessed, returned the eraser and apologized. I think that was the end of my punishment and I decided right then a life of crime was not a good idea in the future.

[haele]

31. My parents weren't into corporal punishment, but they did practice a form of social physics.

I learned early on that every action, no matter how trivial, has expanding consequences in the greater scheme of things.
So I learned I was expected to think about what I was going to do and prepare for results before I did anything.
Boy, I did some stupid things when I was young, but at least I learned you really couldn't get away with anything without paying for it one way or another.
Made me much better at controlling and manipulating situations with better outcomes for everyone if I absolutely had to.

Haele

[monmouth4]

5. I wish people would stop with making this a "cute" and impish act. She stole..n/t

[0rganism]

7. thus qualifying for a job in Trump's cabinet

looks like that Mnuchin guy might have some competition

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Sigh. They grow up so fast.

[Iggo]

9. Six years old.

[Initech]

11. Future Trump supporter?

[hunter]

16. Probably not.

Trumpism is incurious and venal. False pathetic bravado hiding deep insecurities.

[hunter]

14. I have a brother like that. He's the successful sibling.

The rest of us have been punished too often for our altruism and crazy idealism. My brother is always there to pick us up at the airport or bus station after we've crashed and burned.

My brother is altruistic too, but he doesn't let it get in the way of business.

As a toddler he'd gather up coins he found on the tables and countertops and run outside whenever he heard the ice cream truck. Didn't matter how often he'd been scolded for it. As a parent, what else do you do with a kid like that, lock them in a cage?

I gotta wonder about any ice cream vendor who'd sell ice cream and candy to a lone toddler standing in the street, but those were different times.

When I was a young single guy I missed an opportunity to go to Australia. It's one of my regrets. My brother was always trading cars, and one of his trades was a 1960's muscle car for two tickets to Australia. I don't remember what was so special about the car, maybe it's in some wealthy guy's collection now, restored to mint condition. Anyways, I had a little over $600 in the bank and I was still hoping I'd be readmitted to college after being forced to take a leave of absence for fighting with a teaching assistant... among other things. I declined my brother's offer. He couldn't find anyone else to go with him, so he traded the tickets for more cars.

Again, different times. There are no airline tickets like that any more. Tickets having a questionable chain of custody will get you an anal probe at the airport.

I did eventually get readmitted to college, but God, is their anything more pathetic than a practical young man?

[Jamaal510]

15. The mother

should've locked her phone up somewhere (such as a safe) and/or had a password system for unlocking the phone instead of a touch system. She also needs to be stricter at disciplining her daughter, or there will be more of this (and worse) as she reaches adulthood.

[nini]

17. Not cute at all

She intentionally stole something. That kid wouldn't have one thing to play with for 3 months if she was mine.

[spiderpig]

20. Who broke this story, anyway? Mom?

That pwecious pic of the little imp grinning with her ill-gotten games is creepy.

If they were ill-gotten, that is. Could mom have engineered at least part of this?

[nini]

21. good point

I'm amazed at how many people think their kids misbehaving is attention getting fun. I've got one friend on facebook I just want to scream at when he posts stuff his son says and does. That kid is so bad I refuse to go visit them anymore after her slapped me in the face after I sat and read him a book. Yea..that was fun.

It's not cute and you're not doing them any favors to treat it as such.

[missingthebigdog]

18. This is a tough crowd!

She's six! She didn't pocket something at the store, or take money from dad's wallet. She used a magical device that allows you to pick out toys and delivers them to you. Kind of an electronic version of Santa Claus.

It is in no way clear that she understood that her mother, or anyone, would have to pay for what she chose.

I remember the first time I saw my dad use a credit card to pay for something. I was quite perturbed that I wasn't allowed to pick out whatever I wanted, since he had a card that allowed him to get everything free.

This little girl has probably used mom's thumb to unlock the phone lots of times so she could play candy crush or watch videos. Hopefully, mom used this as an opportunity to explain how things work.

[nini]

22. Oh please

She waited until her mom was asleep. She should have waited until she could ask her mom - quit making excuses for bad behavior and bad parenting.

She's old enough to be taught some limits. This is why the freaking millennials at work are so hard to deal with. No boundaries are set with many of them as they grow up. And before I get attacked for that I have stepped into a mentor role for many of them that want to learn how to work in an environment with others. Their parents failed them and need someone to help them learn and succeed. It's the most rewarding aspect of my career I've ever had and they love me by the time we're done.

[missingthebigdog]

33. LOL. Not making excuses- I just think there is an awful lot of overreaction here.

Kids do stuff like this. She is six. If there was some indication that she had a pattern of this kind of behavior, I might see things differently, but I see no evidence that she understood that this was anything more than a game. She immediately told her mother what she had done when she was asked- there was no attempt to deny or hide the behavior. Now she knows. If it happens again, its a problem.

I am all for limits for children, and am not advocating for not teaching kids limits. I also agree that there is some level of bad parenting here- moms should really be awake when six year olds are.

I take issue with your broad brush criticism of millennials. I work with young people on a regular basis, and do not find this generation to be "hard to deal with." I agree that some of them have a more difficult time working with others, but believe that to be related to our education system rather than to poor parenting. We have gotten completely away from helping our children learn to resolve their differences, and moved to strict rules and zero tolerance policies in our schools.

[LisaL]

36. If your kid buys stuff with your credit card but without your permission,

and you let your kid keep most of the stuff, aren't you encouraging the behavior?
You ensured your kid knows that if he/she wants something, he/she can just use your credit card and buy it, and you will let him/her keep most of it.
The only way I would have found the OP story amusing if dog/cat did it.

[missingthebigdog]

39. Your issue is with the parents, not the child.

I agree that rewarding the behavior sends the wrong message; that is a parenting issue.

i just don't think we should all jump to the conclusion that this is a kid destined for prison based upon this one action.

[haele]

25. I'm tougher on the mom than the kid. But she still needs to learn what she did was wrong.

It's not cute, and it's not excusable, and it should only happen once because frankly, it's more lazy parenting than clever kid.

I have a 5 year old grand-daughter who already knows that things cost money. Last year, after she turned 4, we got her a tablet that's hooked up to WiFi so she can play games or go on approved websites will often flash up a pop-up and prompt her to download an app or accept something that costs money - and she has understood since the day we let her start playing on her tablet that she can't click on those pop-ups without permission.
She can now read well enough to already understand what pop-up or sidebar button is a normal part of the game or learning site, and pop-up or sidebar what is trying to get her to go to an online store or otherwise download and access something we don't approve of, so we are fairly comfortable letting her play on her own now, but she still asks us once in a while if she's not sure what happened.

At 5 - at least a year younger than this girl - my grand-daughter knows she can't just get what she wants, even if it's the most important thing to her she has to get because all her friends have one.
She knows the difference between a banked allowance she can play with (i.e., we have a small amount that goes to her Roblox game account every three months for in game "coins" because it's hard for her to just earn them in the game), and actually working for money to increase that allowance.
She can ask for things, but she can't just go out and get it without permission or it's a grounding and the loss of privileges she has to work to get back. She's already learned she has to wait and earn her treats.

So if this little girl's mom still thinks that at the age of 6, it's just too cute that "Princess" waited until Mommy couldn't say anything and played with Mom's phone and "go shopping" for real, then there's a serious problem with rules and boundaries there.
That girl is a Violet Beauregard in waiting if her parents are proud enough to tell the world she was able wait until Mommy was sleeping to access her Amazon account for the $250 worth of toys she wanted really, really badly.
(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference, for those who didn't catch it.)

Haele

[missingthebigdog]

34. Does your granddaughter believe in Santa?

Does she think someone pays for the toys Santa brings?

I assume that when you gave her the tablet, you explained to her that she could not click on the things that cost money. Perhaps you even told her what the consequences would be if she did so. There is no indication that this happened with the child in the article.

When your granddaughter earns coins in the game, does she think they are real coins? Does she expect them to arrive in the mail? Isn't it possible that this little girl was just "pretend" shopping?

When I was little, we pretended to order things from the Sears catalog. We filled out the order form, drew a stamp on the envelope, and pretended to mail it. We pretended to get packages, taking turns being the mailman. We had no expectation that actual things would come in the mail- it was fun to pretend. Kids now play video games, and win virtual prizes. There is no reason to believe that this kid thought these things would really come. Especially since it appears that they were primarily Pokemon things. . . .

We need to allow children to be children, and use things like this to help them understand how the world works. Acting as if an incident like this is an indication that the child is devious, or a thief, or doomed to be a juvenile delinquent is a huge overreaction.

[haele]

35. I understand the gentle, nurturing style of raising kids.

Believe me, I'm very gentle with my grand-daughter and her Santa and magic playing, even if I am a retired Navy Chief/child of hippies/wanna-be history major.
However, because she uses a tablet and will play games on our phones when we're out, we have made sure she understands the difference between pretend shopping and real shopping.
She also knows the difference between a shopping cart on Amazon and a wish list on Amazon.
As it is, I can let her go onto Amazon and "shop" - she knows she can put things on her wish list, and we've disabled one-click in case she hits the wrong button. And she knows she's not to go on Amazon, or Toys R Us.com, or any other site unless the owner of the phone she's using approves of her going on that site.

Anyone who has purchasing apps or does online purchasing understands that if you're going to plug your kid into the internet, they need to know the rules of the road, no matter how young they are.

The mother was liable for anything the child did on her phone, simply for not teaching the child that other than the games she's allowed to play on the phone, she's not allowed onto certain sites and not to do certain things.

All that being said, she waited until her mother was asleep to go on to the site. I have caught my grand-daughter trying to B.S. us before (one of the reasons we keep her is that she's wrapped her mom and dad around her finger already...), and I know for certain I had been guilty of "doing what I knew was wrong anyway" when I was her age. My mom still remembers the more spectacular events, even if I don't...
Kids explore at that age. But they also develop a respect for actions and consequences at that age, also. It's not narrowing their imagination by explaining why they can't just do something, and disciplining them appropriately when they become stubborn and try to control the reality around them.

Again, in that Mom's shoes, I wouldn't have yelled or spanked her; I would have told that child she was wrong for sneaking - which she did, if she waited for her mom to be asleep before going on the website- and I would have made damn sure she didn't profit from her bad behavior.
She would have to donate whatever couldn't be returned to a homeless shelter or Boys/Girls club, and she would have been spending weekends with me for two months at a homeless shelter for families helping out two to three hours a day.

She has to understand she can't just take what she wants and expect adults to be doormats because she's cute. And frankly, the Mom (or Dad, or whomever) who's apparently so proud that their six-year-old figured out how to shop online by herself - without approval, and to the potential detriment of the family budget that they let her keep what she bought is imprinting on the child during the impressionable age that it's okay to sneak and cheat because she's going to get what she wants no matter what anyone else says. Wrong lesson at the wrong time, if you want an honest child.

Haele

Haele

[TheBlackAdder]

19. While police can not get you to divulge a phone's password, they can legally use your fingerprint.

.


Having your phone unlock on a fingerprint isn't the swiftest security measure.


It also aids in the collection of personal information, from facialk recognition, voice streams, to fingerprints.


.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Mom's Got To Be One Heavy Sleeper

No way someone moves my hand while i'm sleeping and i don't wake up instantly. There is more to this than meets the eye.

[MFM008]

26. she would NOT be smiling

When my kid was 8 he got into my dads drawer and took 6 ten dollar rolls of quarters thinking they wouldn't be missed.
They were missed right away.
I went in his room and he had stuck them in his book bag.
He stayed in his room alot after that...for a while.............


PS he never did it again..
hes now a Lowe's department manager.

[LisaL]

27. And mama supposedly let her keep a bunch of them.

Jeez. One can usually cancel an amazon order (if done before it ships) or return the items. If your kid orders a bunch of items without your permission, and you let them keep it anyway, what does that tell the kid?

[KT2000]

29. my brother ordered a BMW

from Alexa. He walked into the room and said "Alexa, buy me a BMW" thinking he was being hilarious. Alexa started the transaction whereupon my brother's wife ran to her computer to stop it since it was on her account. As it turned out, Alexa was processing the sale for mechanical pencils!
This can really turn into a big mess with kids and idiots like my brother!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. And in a few years when this kid

refuses to comply with any rules, never goes to school, hangs out all day, possibly doing lots of illegal things, the mom will be shocked, just shocked, and will never once make the connection between thinking this theft was cute and later behavior.

What I don't get was why she "was only allowed to return four of the items". In any case, anything that was genuinely not returnable needed to be donated to other families.

Not quite the same thing, but when my younger son was six he spent the summer roaming around our neighborhood, making friends with kids his age. He was especially taken with Michael and Sara, siblings, and he'd be in Sara's class in the fall. In the middle of the summer he started talking about plans for a midnight party with his friends, but we didn't take it seriously. Come the day, the night I should probably say, we got a knock on our door a bit after midnight, and there was an adult we'd never seen before with our son in tow. We lectured him strongly, saying that if the police had seen him out roaming so late they'd have thought we were terrible parents and would have taken him from us and put him in foster care, and we made foster care sound pretty awful. The next day my husband and I went over to the other parents' house and told them that while we would not be surprised if they did not want our son to visit them ever again, we understood, but we wanted to let them know that he was absolutely grounded for the next two weeks. We may have taken away some other privileges, but I no longer recall all the details.

Actually, we were pretty impressed and somewhat proud that our son could make those plans, stay up late, and sneak out of the house without our noticing, but we certainly didn't let on. That son is now 29, and recently I told him that we weren't quite as horrified as we'd made out to be back then. The up side is that he never did anything quite like that again, although he did manage to get into his share of teenage boy trouble over the years.

It's my opinion you have to nip certain behaviors in the bud, and the mom in the story above is making a huge mistake.