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Toddler Buys Earthmover in Online Auction

WELLINGTON, N.Z. – 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 $12,300.

by Staff
May 29, 2009
1 min to read


WELLINGTON, N.Z. – 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 $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.

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"The first I knew about it was when I came down and opened up the computer," said Pipi's mother, Sarah Quinlan.

"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.

"It wasn't until I went back and reread the e-mails that I saw $20,000 — and got the shock of my life."

She immediately called the auction site and the seller to explain what happened.

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TradeMe reimbursed the seller's costs for the auction and the digger was relisted.


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