Four-year-old Noah Ruiz has two great loves: Popsicles and SpongeBob.
When he discovered that these two passions had been combined into one fruity, icy treat, he did the only logical thing: he ordered them.
To be precise, 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 after his iPad broke. She was busy in another room when Noah apparently found his way into her Amazon Prime account, which she shares with her sister who lives nearby.
In hindsight, there were signs that something unusual was about to happen.
“He kept saying the number ‘51,’” Jennifer recalled. “All day, he was walking around repeating ‘51, 51.’”
But Jennifer didn’t think much of it, as Noah often repeats things: “I really wasn’t surprised because he was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).”
The surprise came with a phone call from a frustrated sister.
Noah’s aunt wasn’t expecting three massive boxes of SpongeBob SquarePants Popsicles.
Then came the call.
“She was fussing and cussing, saying, ‘You really need to stop ordering all this stuff.’”
Three giant boxes, each weighing 70 pounds and needing to be frozen immediately, had been delivered to her sister’s house.
“I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
That’s when Jennifer found out she was the proud owner of 51 cases of SpongeBob Popsicles, costing nearly $2,619.
Suddenly, Noah’s constant chant of “51, 51…” started to make sense.
A Frozen Headache Amazon wouldn’t accept the return of the ice pops because they came from a third-party vendor. (Amazon later reached out to Jennifer and promised to donate the value of the Popsicles to a charity of her choice.) Her credit card company is investigating, but no refund has been issued yet. For a moment, Jennifer, a mother of three with hefty school bills, was uncertain how she would cover her tuition for the semester.
A friend from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay off at least some of the Popsicle costs.
And here’s the sweet ending. (No, it’s not that Noah got to eat all 918 Popsicles in a preschool feast; they melted in just two days.)
The GoFundMe paid off the Popsicles within 24 hours, and donations kept pouring in, surpassing the original goal.
Jennifer says she will use the extra funds to support Noah’s education and the additional help he needs. She hopes to send him to a special school for children on the autism spectrum. Noah would like that, but his real dream is to meet SpongeBob in person.