Helicopter bid lands teen in big trouble
By MARGARET WACK

Review Staff Writer

LISBON -- A 13-year old Beaver Local student may have to save his allowance for the next thousand years to pay for the $1.1 million Cobra attack helicopter he bid on at E-Bay using someone else's name.

The boy, a student at the middle school, allegedly went online at the school and entered the user name and password of a friend's mother to bid on several items totalling more than $2 million.

According to Friday's sheriff's report, the woman's 17-year old son, a student at Beaver Local High School, previously had given the information to the younger boy to help him buy some items online because his parents don't use E-Bay.

The report states the boy bid on the items in question while he was with another eighth-grader in an astronomy class held in a computer lab Friday morning.

He allegedly also bid on a plane worth $199,000 and various motorcycles, trucks and vehicles. In total, bids were given for nine items and had to be rescinded by the woman and her son on the web site.

The woman said Saturday evening that she walked into her house after work on Friday to a phone call from a man in California asking her how she wanted to pay for the helicopter she bought from him.

After first thinking the man was joking, she then was informed by her son what had happened, as admitted to him by the 13-year-old who had called earlier. Her son said that, at first, the boy had tried to blame the other eighth-grade boy but then had admitted what he had done.

A phone call to the boy's parents did not produce any clear course of action, as they were at first uncooperative, she said.

Upon notifying the sheriff's department around 7:45 p.m., Deputy Jeff Haugh advised her to first go to E-Bay and retract any bids the boy had made.

The other eighth-grade boy involved, said the woman, apparently had tried to dissuade the boy from his actions. His mother later called the woman to apologize and offer her assistance.

The woman said she believes the school is responsible in part due to a lack of supervision and ease of access to Web sites.

Her main concern now is a possible civil suit. She said she is not sure about the policy, but is aware of a percentage penalty charged by E-Bay for fraudulent or deceitful practices on the site.

She also said the California man claimed he had spent more than $6,000 in airplane fuel to return to the helicopter to ready it for sale.

In the meantime, her account has been suspended, and she is not able to log on the system due to a report made to E-Bay by the California man who owns the plane.

The woman had not even used the E-Bay account herself. Her son had set it up for her, but she said she is usually too busy to spend time on-line.

While speaking Saturday evening, she said she wanted people to be informed of the dangers of the Internet and the possibility of fraud, what she called "one of the evils of the computer age."

Although she admitted her son was too trusting, he said he had changed the password a couple months ago, but believes the 13-year-old had seen him type it in.

He changed it again Friday evening.

So, as of Saturday evening, she said she doesn't know what will happen -- she has no answers and probably won't until the middle of the week when all parties can get in touch with each other.

She said the boy must be held accountable for this situation, "I'm appalled at what I've been through in the last 24 hours."

Although she is not sure of the 13-year-old's motives for such irresponsible action, she said, "It's not like the pranks when I was a kid."