photo courtesy of ABC News
Single mother of four Kayla Howard received over $10,000 in donation money for Christmas after her 7-year-old son accidentally drained her bank account by buying extras on the popular children’s game Roblox. According to 12 News, Howard’s autistic son purchased $897 of things on the game. Including overdraft fees from draining the account, she had a negative balance of $1244 just before Christmas, and there was “a total of seven unauthorized charges on [her] account,”
Howard then opened up a GoFundMe to bring her bank balance back to zero after the Roblox purchases. “I set the goal to $1,244, and that’s because that’s how negative my account was,” the single mother explained to the outlet.
The fundraiser page read, “On December 16, 2022, my 7-year-old son with Autism accidentally made multiple unauthorized purchases for Robux via Google Play totaling $897.17 without my consent or knowledge. Even after I followed Google Play’s refund request policies and procedures to immediately request a refund for the purchases, Google Play only refunded $10.80.”
She continued to explain that she was a single mother with four children and a full-time job alongside a math tutoring business. And yet she still “[has] no money left to meet myself and my children’s basic needs.”
Howard was asking for donations to help relieve some stress for the holidays. “My bank account is currently -1244.52 as a result of the purchases and resulting overdraft fees. Donations of any amount will help me to cover my expenses and bring my family peace this holiday season.”
Thankfully, Howard ended up meeting her donation amount and even surpassing it!
“The last time I checked, it was at 10,979 dollars! Ten times the goal.” She said. The mother told the outlet that she used the money to buy a Christmas tree and even buy gifts for all her kids. With the surplus money, she closed the GoFundMe and decided to start her own non-profit to help others.
“What I’m most excited about doing is actually starting a non-profit named after my daughter specifically to help families of children with autism,” Howard expressed, “Thank you to everyone who supported myself and my children during this time. Thank you for reminding me that there are good people in this world.”