An 11-year-old boy took thousands of dollars from his family’s emergency savings before spending $2,000 on Roblox gift cards at Walmart.
Toronto parents Hong Jin and Jason Kim said their son secretly grabbed an envelope of cash before visiting his grandmother.
“Before he went to his grandma’s place, he took the whole envelope, which has $2,000 to $3,000 in cash,” Jin told CTV News.
Later, when the boy’s grandmother took him to Walmart to browse the toy section, he slipped away and bought $2,000 worth of Roblox gift cards across two separate cash transactions.
The family only discovered what happened after noticing that the emergency money was missing.
“I was shocked. I’m still shocked. I can’t believe a small kid could spend $2,000 at Walmart,” Kim said.
Walmart says employee followed gift card policy
The family returned to Walmart with the gift cards and receipts, but were reportedly told that the cards were final sale and could not be refunded.
Jin questioned how an 11-year-old carrying such a large amount of cash was allowed to complete the purchases without an adult being consulted.
Walmart explained that it had reviewed the transactions and found that the employee followed its $1,000 limit for gift card purchases. The boy reportedly got around that cap by completing two separate transactions.
The retailer also said Walmart Canada has no age restriction on gift card purchases, although individual card issuers may impose conditions when they are redeemed. Walmart said it contacted the family directly to discuss the incident.
The case is far from the first time a child has spent big on gaming. One mother went viral after discovering her child had bought 49,300 Fortnite V-Bucks, while another young fan spent almost $20,000 of their parent’s money on Twitch in just 17 days.
Another 11-year-old previously used his parents’ credit card to spend $1,200 in Fortnite, although that family eventually received a refund from Epic Games.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
