Noah Ruiz, four, has two favorite things: popsicles and SpongeBob SquarePants.
When he realized that both of his passions had been blended into one fruity and delectable frosty treat, he did the only rational thing: he placed an order for them.
He actually ordered 918 of them. From his mother’s Amazon Prime account. Without informing her.
When Noah’s iPad stopped working, his mother, Jennifer Bryant, allowed him to use her laptop for remote schooling. She was in another room when Noah evidently gained access to her Amazon Prime account, which she shares with her sister, who lives nearby.
In retrospect, there were clues that something was going 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 he repeats himself: “I really wasn’t surprised because he was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).”
A phone call from an exasperated sister
Noah’s aunt didn’t expect to get three 70-pound boxes of SpongeBob SquarePants Popsicles. Courtesy Jennifer Bryant
Then she received the call.
“She was fussing and cussing, and she said to me, ‘You know, you really need to stop ordering all this stuff.'”
Three massive boxes, each weighing 70 pounds and requiring urgent freezing, had arrived at her sister’s home.
“I said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.'”
Jennifer learned she was the fortunate owner of 51 cases of SpongeBob Popsicles, which cost little about $2,619.
Noah’s mantra of “51, 51…” began to make sense.
A frozen headache
Amazon refused to accept the ice pops back because they were purchased from a third-party vendor. (Amazon has since contacted Bryant and offered to donate the amount of the Popsicles to a charity of her choice.) Her credit card is investigating but has yet to give a refund. For a horrifying moment, Bryant, a mother of three with her own large school expenditures, had no idea how she was going to pay her tuition this semester.
A friend and fellow student at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work set up a GoFundMe page for her, hoping to help pay off some of the Popsicles.
And that gets us to our happy ending. (And, no, Noah didn’t get to consume all 918 Popsicles in a preschool Bacchanalia; they melted in two days.)
The GoFundMe campaign paid off the ice pops within 24 hours, and donations continued to pour in, much beyond the original goal.
Jennifer says she’ll use the extra money to pay for Noah’s education and the additional educational support he requires. She hopes to be able to send him to a special school for children with autism. Noah would appreciate that, too, but his true desire is to meet SpongeBob in person.