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Baby buys Austin-Healey Sprite car on eBay and the parents keep it

A baby buys an Austin-Healey Sprite car on eBay. What, as their parent, do you do? In the case of two Portland parents, you keep it. 

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KOIN Screenshot
Fourteen-month-old Sorella Stoute bought a car with the eBay app on her dad's smart phone.
  • By Andrew Averill Correspondent

A toddler clicks away on a smart phone. What's the worst that could happen? She could could buy a roadster off eBay.

That's what happened to one Oregon family last month. Their 14-month-old toddler bought a 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite through an eBay app on her dad's smart phone.

"She decided? to open the eBay app, and started clicking around and one thing led to another and we own a car," dad Paul Stoute told KOIN 6 News in Portland.  

Mr. Stoute had no idea about the purchase until he received an e-mail from eBay congratulating him on the buy and listed the total cost — $225. Relieved she hadn't purchased the $38,000 Porsche, he told KOIN, he and his wife still were worried.

"Panic. Initial panic. Just a 'what do we do, we can't really afford it' kind of thing." Stoute told KOIN. 

Stoute's wife called her mother, Carlene Stenejhem, and told her what happened. "I said, 'Yeah, right,'" Ms. Stenejhem recalled. "And she said, 'No, Sorella bought a car on eBay and we have to buy it.'"

Stoute plans on fixing the car up, but it needs a lot of work. The car's moniker, spray painted on the driver side door, is Frankensprite. 

He's using Smarty Pig, a crowdfunding website, to raise money for the repairs and told KOIN he'd like to be able to give the car, in working order, to Sorella when she gets her license. 

In case you're wondering, Stoute has upped the security on his smart phone since. He changed his phone's pin number and installed facial recognition software. 

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