How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? And what will it take to really make our lives "pop"?
Kentucky mom Holly LaFavers found herself no closer to answering either of those questions when her eight-year-old son, Liam, accidentally placed a monumental order on Amazon and left the two of them in a very sticky situation.
The second-grader, while planning his own carnival, placed an Amazon order for 70,000 Dum-Dum lollipops.
"He told me that he wanted to have a carnival, and he was ordering the Dum-Dums as prizes for his carnival."
"He was being friendly. He was being kind to his friends."
When LaFavers realized what her son had done, she tried to cancel the Amazon order but it was too late. The order had already been prepared to be shipped, and because of the nature of the item and the possibility for someone to tamper with the lollipops, the 70,000 Dum-Dums could not be returned.
Not being able to be refunded for the order was a hard pill to swallow. The 70,000 lollipops cost about $4,000.
"When I saw what the number was, I just about fainted."
But there were more surprises when the lollipops began to show up at her door.
Though Dum-Dums are small, the 70,000 small items accumulated to a total of twenty-two boxes that LaFavers had to find space for in her home, with some trickling over to her garage space.
To make matters worse, there were eight cases that had been stopped mid-delivery and returned to Amazon for reasons unknown to LaFavers, meaning that in another life, she would have had 30 cases of Dum-Dum lollipops in her home.
You can watch additional coverage of the story here:
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The conversation traveled over to the "Kids Are F**king Stupid" subReddit, where Redditors pondered how long it would take to go through so many lollipops.
"We know what they're giving out for Halloween this year." - Serious_Specter
"These just became intergenerational lollipops. That kid's grandkids will tell their kids about that time grandpapi bought enough lollipops they still eatin them." - plasmaSunflower
"It’s because you can’t return food products on Amazon. One time I accidentally ordered a box of like 60 granola bars, and they gave me a refund, but they just let me keep the granola bars. With how long it took me to eat 60 REALLY GOOD granola bars, I cannot imagine how long it would take to clear out these." - sneaky-snooper
"Another Redditor said it cost $4000. If you sell it at school or work for $0.5 each, you could make $35,000 ($31,000 profit)."
"That being said, it would take a really, really long time." - Sharpz0
"This is why, if I ever have kids, I'm not letting them near an electronic device without supervision until they're like a teenager. Any sort of electronic device."
"I remember when I was a kid, I bought a s**t ton of stuff off the On Demand part of the cable and recording stuff my grandmother had on the TV. She managed to get a refund for the purchases I made (it was like +$300 that was added to her cable bill as a result of my shenanigans), and I got grounded and a very stern talking to by her."
"Mind you, I was like 10 when this happened. I'm 20 now, and when my mother and stepfather had my two youngest siblings. When I was living with them. I kept my eyes on the electronic devices they were allowed access to, to make sure that nothing like what I did would happen again."
"This could have gone so much worse for this mom, and it'll take forever to unload those suckers if they don't want to just throw them away, which is wasting food." - Pixel22104
Other Redditors pointed out that this was a perfect example of the importance of passwords
"This feels like the start to a Disney Channel original comedy movie, parent shock and all." - coin_in_da_bank
" Parents are f**king stupid. Why are payment details stored on a device that a child has access to? This is a self-created problem." - ZirePhiinix
"How does this even happen? My Amazon account asks me to log in every time I use it and I’ve been on the same d**n phone for years." - zesindeedysir
"This is why you don’t save your info on the computer and phone, folks. Among other reasons, of course." - Key_Success7423
"It's not the kid's fault. It's the parents' fault for not teaching their kid clear boundaries. As in, 'You can't play around on Amazon or order anything off of Amazon.'" - Athos-1844
"1. It's Amazon. They should be able to appeal and refund it, even if the food can't be returned."
"2. How is that nobody at Amazon flagged this purchase for confirmation? How did they even have that many to send? And how did the parents not notice THAT much money being pulled?"
"3. Somebody is getting technology access revoked for the next two presidents." - GingerKitty26
According to WKYT, if it were to take five minutes to eat one Dum-Dum lollipop, it would take 243 days to eat all 70,000 lollipops without taking a break, surely accompanied by a horrid stomach ache and cavities.
Fortunately for Holly LaFavers, she was able to get in touch with Amazon and have her order refunded after all.
LaFavers has also committed to changing some settings on her phone so that her son cannot accidentally make a mistake like this again while enjoying some screen time.
