Four-year-old accidentally places $100 Uber Eats order and leaves nice tip

Well, we really can't blame Starbucks for what happened with the 4-year-old nephew of TikTok user @marcfranks 7. Sure, the coffee purveyor would love to get everyone hooked on caffeine at a young age, but this is one of those situations where a youngster was able to access one of his parents' smartphones without their knowledge leading to the situation that we are about to describe.

In a video on TikTok viewed over 1.7 million times on the most downloaded app in the world last year (656 million installs), we hear how a four-year-old got access to the Uber Eats app on his mom or dad's phone and without anyone's knowledge, the child accidentally placed an order for eight servings of egg bites, four iced venti caramel macchiatos, four grande iced coffees, three grande hot coffees, and cake pops. Not only did he also make a separate order for Dunkin' Donuts, but he also tipped the driver $32.

The entire delivery came to over $100 and the rascal escaped punishment since his family thought that it was hilarious to find the order bagged up on their doorstep when they returned home. "We just thought it was funny, he was not punished, just asked to not do it again," Franks said. He added that "I can’t tell you how hard it was to explain to him why he shouldn’t do that. Meanwhile, he was stuffing his face with a blue cake pop."

Let this story serve as a warning to parents who leave their phones or tablets out where their kids can find them and run up a nice-sized tab even if they really don't know what they are doing. We told you in the past about a six-year-old named George who spent over $16,000 buying accessories for his favorite game, "Sonic Force." These purchases were made over several sessions using his mother's iPad.

That was the first mistake. When she noticed large sums of money vanishing from her bank account, she chalked it up to a banking error or fraud. Because the purchases were not itemized, the mother was confused. Finally, she contacted the bank which told her that the charges were real and that she needed to speak with Apple. By the time she got off the phone with Apple, she realized that her son was the culprit.

Sometimes an experience takes place that is so bizarre that you might not have defended your device against it happening because, after all, who could conceive of the following incident taking place. In 2017 a six-year-old girl named Brooke Neitzel had used her parents' Amazon Echo Dot to order a dollhouse and four pounds of cookies. But that is not the strange part of what occurred.

A San Diego news anchor reported the story by saying, "I love the little girl, saying 'Alexa order me a dollhouse." No sooner had the anchorman finished that sentence than Echo devices throughout the region started lighting up and ordering dollhouses.

What happened, in this case, was rather simple. CW6 anchor Jim Patton said the "Alexa" wake word followed by "order me a dollhouse." The digital assistant heard "Alexa, order me a dollhouse." Those with credit cards on file were billed and received a surprise shipment. There is a setting in Alexa that will allow users to disable voice purchasing, but it is such a convenience that many are loath to turn it off.

Besides, if a product is ordered through Alexa accidentally, it can be returned for no charge.