Lila Varisco, a 5-year-old girl from Westport, Mass., went on a digital shopping spree, racking up thousands of dollars while “playing” on her mom’s cell phone.
Jessica Nunes, the girl’s mother, tells PEOPLE that she was “stunned” to suddenly see shipping confirmations of toys and other accessories from Amazon come rolling in.
“When I opened the email confirming the ‘purchase shipment’ my initial thought was that it was a spam email or a fraudulent charge,” Nunes tells PEOPLE. “I was stunned when I pulled up my Amazon account and realized that Lila had made the purchases.”
Scrolling down through her order history, Nunes saw her daughter’s selections: 10 kid-sized dirt bikes, a toy Jeep, and 10 pairs of cowgirl boots.
Lila, who cannot read or write (at least to her mother’s knowledge), made purchases just shy of $4,000.
As for what inspired the shopping spree, Nunes told Today her daughter was “matter of fact” in her explanation: “She said, ‘I just wanted it and I got it.'”
“Lila has a big personality,” Nunes told Fox News. “She’s very intelligent. A little too smart, I would say.”
When Nunes first addressed the online orders with her daughter, she told the outlet that Lila didn’t seem to realize “the gravity of what she had done.”
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“She doesn’t have a phone or even have a tablet,” Nunes told Fox News. “She does play a game on my phone sometimes. It’s like a little makeup game. It’s just a silly little app. I gave her my phone, so she could play her game just to blow off steam.”
However, Nunes said her daughter “knew about Amazon” from the holidays — and racked up all that damage in about 15 minutes during a car ride.
As for what sparked Lila’s interest in the bikes, Nunes told multiple outlets that they had seen a boy riding the Dirt Rocket bike at the park on the Sunday prior to her splurge.
“I was very stressed because those bikes alone were about $1,600,” she said Fox News, adding that while she was able to cancel most of the orders herself, Amazon was able to help her “get everything straightened out.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Though Nunes said she takes full responsibility for what happened, the mom tells PEOPLE she hopes this was the start of an important lesson about finances for her daughter, who did not get to keep any of her desired items.
“My takeaway from this experience is to be more proactive about protecting my accounts with passwords and not storing financial information,” Nunes says.
“Secondly, I am using this as an opportunity to teach Lila about the value of money and the importance of working for the things she wants,” Nunes adds. “I don’t want to set the standard for ‘I want it, I get it.’ She has started doing age-appropriate chores around the house for an allowance.”