Three-year-old Toddler Buys Earthmover in Online Auction for $12,300

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 22, 2009
Filed at 9:03 p.m. ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand mom made some online bids on toys before napping. Then her 3-year-old daughter took over and bought a bigger plaything than expected -- a huge earth-moving digger for a cool $12,300.

Pipi Quinlan made the winning 20,000 New Zealand dollar ($12,300) bid on the Kobelco digger with a few mouse clicks at the auction site TradeMe while her parents slept, the Rodney Times newspaper reported in northern New Zealand.

''I saw an e-mail from TradeMe saying I had won an auction and another e-mail from the seller saying something like `I think you'll love this digger,''' she was quoted as saying in the paper.

Quinlan said she had made auction bids on several toy sets and assumed she had bought a toy digger.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/22/world/AP-AS-ODD-New-Zealand-Big-Toy.html