Latest news with #Dum-Dum
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- Indian Express
Kentucky boy uses mother's phone to order 70K Dum-Dum suckers to share with his friends
A Kentucky woman was in a sticky mess when she found stacks of boxes containing lollipops on her front doorstep. The surprise delivery was ordered by her young son while he played on her phone. Holly LaFavers says she tried stopping 8-year-old Liam's Amazon order for about 70,000 Dum-Dum suckers before the treats arrived but it was too late. Amazon had already delivered 22 cases to her home. 'He told me that he wanted to have a carnival, and he was ordering the Dum-Dums as prizes for his carnival,' LaFavers said. 'Again, he was being friendly, he was being kind to his friends.' The surprise got worse after a quick check of her bank account. She owed about $4,000 for the order. 'When I saw what the number was, I just about fainted,' LaFavers said. Then she found out that eight more cases from the order were unaccounted for, she said. After a trip to the post office, those cases were returned to sender, she said. Her efforts to get a refund took a bit more time but she got her money back. 'After a long day of working with the bank and talking to a few news stations Amazon called and they are refunding my money,' she said in a social media post. LaFavers said she was changing some settings on her phone to make sure there's never another surprise delivery at home.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From the Windy City to the Chair of St. Peter
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Friday! For one Kentucky mom, stepping out the door to a wall of 22 boxes containing Dum-Dum lollipops lining the hall must have caused quite the confusion. But her 8-year-old son, who coincidentally has access to her Amazon account, appeared less confused by the arrival of 70,000 lollipops: 'Mom, my suckers are here!' (For all we put our moms through, giving them the gift of thoughtful, informed journalism is the least we can do this Mother's Day. Click here to explore our Dispatch membership options!) Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, was elected to the papacy on Thursday by the papal conclave in Rome, assuming the name Pope Leo XIV and becoming the first-ever American-born pope. After graduating from Villanova University with a mathematics degree in 1977, Prevost was ordained as a priest in 1982 and eventually went on to serve in Peru for two decades, becoming a naturalized citizen of the country. Pope Francis, his predecessor, named him a bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015, and in 2023 appointed him as a cardinal and head of the Dicastery of Bishops, which oversees bishop appointments around the world. India and Pakistan accused one another of carrying out drone and missile attacks on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, as the conflict sparked by last month's terrorist attack in Kashmir continued to escalate. Pakistan claimed to have shot down 12 Indian drones, while India said it prevented drone and missile attacks on 15 sites. India further accused Pakistani airstrikes of targeting three of its military bases. Pakistan has denied engaging in the cross-border fire, despite the country's defense minister indicating Thursday that further retaliation by Islamabad was 'increasingly certain.' Five Iranian nationals arrested in Britain last weekend are suspected of planning a terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in London, the U.K.-based Times newspaper first reported Wednesday. British police are currently questioning four of the suspects, while the fifth has been released on bail. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday night that the Islamic Republic 'categorically rejects any involvement' in the alleged plans, and suggested, without evidence, that the foiled attack was a third-party 'false flag' operation designed to sabotage diplomatic relations. President Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced a new trade deal that will keep a 10 percent U.S. baseline tariff on British imports, but spare the first 100,000 British-made automobiles sold to the U.S. from 25 percent tariffs. The formal agreement has not yet been signed. While the full details of the deal have yet to be released, the White House said it will include the creation of a 'new trading union for steel and aluminum' and lower tariff rates on U.K.-manufactured airplane parts. In exchange, the U.K. agreed to increase its purchases of U.S. goods, including beef, ethanol, and completed airplanes. Meanwhile, the European Union on Thursday released a list of potential U.S. imports that it plans to target in the event that no resolution is reached with the Trump administration. The list includes $107 billion worth of American products, including airplanes, automobiles, car parts, wine, beer, and liquor. Trump so far has implemented a blanket 10 percent tariff on E.U. imports, which he on April 2 announced would be raised to 20 percent before ultimately issuing a 90-day delay. 'The EU remains fully committed to finding negotiated outcomes with the U.S.,' EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday. 'At the same time, we continue preparing for all possibilities.' The Trump administration on Thursday sanctioned a Chinese oil refinery and three Chinese port operators it accused of purchasing and receiving 'hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil.' The privately-owned Chinese refinery, Hebei Xinhai, allegedly processes Iranian oil, while the three Chinese firms operating a terminal in northern China's Dongying Port are said to have received Iranian oil imports. Additionally, the administration sanctioned six vessels and their owners, along with two Indian ship captains, for allegedly transporting illicit Iranian oil to China and the Persian Gulf. Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced Thursday that he would be donating 99 percent of his fortune to the Gates Foundation—more than $10o billion and one of the largest philanthropic gifts of all time. He also said that the Gates Foundation, which he founded, would be wound down by 2045 in order to ensure that it spent as much of the money as possible. The gift will allow the foundation to spend an additional estimated $200 billion over the next two decades, continuing its work in supporting scientific research, education, and global health care. President Trump on Thursday withdrew his pick for U.S. attorney for Washington D.C., Ed Martin—who was serving in the role on an interim basis—announcing plans to appoint Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro to fill the position for now. On Tuesday, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would oppose Martin's bid over his views on the January 6 attack on the Capitol, leaving support for Martin's confirmation in the committee deadlocked at an 11-11 tie. Martin had previously said that the January 6 attack was 'staged' and referred to federal prosecutors of January 6 defendants as 'despicable people.' The Roman Catholic Church has its first American pope. But don't worry—it's not Donald Trump (despite his recent campaigning for the papacy). Just after 6 p.m. local time on Thursday, white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel signaled that the papal conclave had chosen the next bishop of Rome. On the second day of voting in a closed-door process, at least 89—or two-thirds—of 133 voting cardinals lent their support to a 69-year-old Chicago native: Cardinal Robert Prevost. Now called Leo XIV, the new pope will be tasked with serving as the spiritual guide to more than 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide at a moment of growth and upheaval for the church. Donning red and gold vestments, the new pontiff addressed crowds in Italian and Spanish from a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square in Vatican City yesterday evening. 'God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward,' he said, before speaking directly to the church of Rome: 'We have to look together how to be a missionary church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love.' Prevost is assuming the papacy at an uncertain time, as the Catholic Church confronts a polarized world and navigates internal clashes between modernity and tradition. Despite initial reports that he aligns in many ways with the late Pope Francis, it's unclear whether Prevost will adopt the often progressive approach of his predecessor or seek to return to the Vatican to its more traditional roots. Prevost's first encounters with Catholicism came early in life. He served as an altar boy and later attended a seminary high school. He eventually went on to complete a doctorate in canon law after earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1977. Prevost was ordained as a priest in 1982, and three years later, moved to Peru, where he would serve as a missionary before eventually leaving to head the Order of St. Augustine between 2001 and 2013. Prevost later returned to Peru in 2014, becoming a citizen and eventually the bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, which includes the populous northwestern city of Piura. He ended his mission in Peru in 2023, after being named the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America—a department that oversees some 40 percent of the world's Catholics—and head of the Dicastery for Bishops, which is charged with leading the selection of new bishops. Prevost became a cardinal the same year but continued to profess his commitment to the missionary cause. 'I still consider myself a missionary,' he told Vatican News in 2023. 'My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is.' In February 2024, Pope Francis promoted Prevost to the position of cardinal-bishop. While Prevost is generally known as a supporter of Pope Francis, it's unclear whether Prevost will take up the often controversial causes of his predecessor, which arguably left the church more divided than when he inherited it in 2013. Prevost—once described as the 'dignified middle of the road' candidate for the papacy—has criticized the former pope's endorsement of blessings for same-sex marriages, arguing that support for the practice alienates bishops in Africa, where views on sexuality are often highly conservative. But on the role of women in the church, Prevost has largely aligned with his predecessor in opposing their ordination. Although he has said women 'can add a great deal to the life of the church on many different levels,' he has argued that making them priests 'doesn't necessarily solve a problem. It might make a new problem.' Francis' call for world leaders to 'build bridges, not walls,' also seems to have resonated with Prevost. His appointment breaks a decades-long taboo on electing American popes for fear that the world's secular superpower would dominate the Catholic Church's religious authority, but for now, the new pope looks more poised to be a thorn in the White House's side than an arrow in its quiver. On X, Prevost has posted and reposted several articles criticizing the Trump administration's hardline immigration policy, foreshadowing possible clashes between the Vatican and Washington. The new pontiff will also inherit the papacy amid continuing efforts to root out sexual abuse within the church. But Prevost himself has faced scrutiny for his past handling of abuse cases. As head of the Augustinians' Midwest province in Chicago, a role he served in from 1998 to 2010, he permitted a priest with a known record of sexually assaulting minors to live in an Augustinian rectory close to a school. In a more recent incident, three women accused him of failing to launch an immediate investigation into abuse allegations against clergymen in the Diocese of Chiclayo. But commentators have challenged claims about his purported negligence. Pope Francis made history as the first Jesuit pope; the new pontiff has made his own history by being the first pope from the Order of St. Augustine (OSA), founded in 1244 and focused on community and service. 'Community is the axis around which Augustinian religious life turns: a community of brothers who live harmoniously in their house, united by a single soul and a single heart, seeking God together and open to the service of the Church,' reads the constitution of the OSA. And Prevost himself has espoused those ideals of community and service. 'We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine, the way of living our faith, but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ and to bear witness to our closeness to the Lord,' he said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News. 'This comes first: to communicate the beauty of the faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. It means that we ourselves are living it and sharing this experience.' Claire Lehmann We tend to take our modern world for granted—running water, piped-in gas, an electricity grid, internet, superabundant consumer goods, medicines, and life-saving surgeries performed under anesthesia. Citizens in a modern liberal society are like fish in water: They don't comprehend the luxuriousness of their lifestyles and could not survive without them. We are surrounded by the fruits of liberal capitalism to the point where critics of this system rely on the very tools created by it to condemn it. Yet success has bred complacency, and in the third decade of the 21st century, this complacency is now coming home to roost. Politics May 8, 2025 Nick Catoggio Has any Republican navigated the Trump era as skillfully as Marco Rubio? Policy May 9, 2025 Kevin D. Williamson When do we admit that a principled reform has failed us? Policy May 9, 2025 Eric S. Edelman and Franklin C. Miller Forward bases give the U.S. vital access and advantages. Policy May 9, 2025 John McCormack Republicans likely have the votes in the Senate, but the House is a closer call. Politics May 9, 2025 Michael Warren The Georgia governor is just the latest Trump-averse Republican to steer clear of Congress. In the New Yorker, Jordan Salama detailed migrant life in the big city. 'In recent years, the newest residents have come mostly from Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Such migrants line up each day at dawn at paradas—'stops'—hoping to get picked up for day jobs, like tiling, roofing, or painting. At least among Spanish speakers, paradas across New York are known by names that describe either their location or their purpose, such as 'La de Limpieza' ('the Housecleaning One') or 'Home Depot.' How these spring up is less complicated than one might think—people learn to do whatever work is immediately available in the area,' he wrote. 'Earlier this year, after the Trump Administration took power and began what it called the 'largest deportation effort in U.S. history,' the numbers lessened for a while—people are terrified of ICE. A regular told me that, at least twice, an unmarked car pulled up to the parada, sending everyone running. But attendance at the parada has since returned to pre-Trump levels, despite the obvious risks. People have to work.' Russia's creed is not Orthodox Christianity but 'a religion of war created and propagated by state and Church officials alike,' Ian Garner argued in New Statesman. 'The most important date in this religion's calendar is not Easter—it is Victory Day on 9 May. … Under Putin, Second World War celebrations have become central to state ideology. The young president attended a Victory Day parade on Red Square just two days after ascending to office in 2000, and he has since transformed the day into a centrepiece of state religion. The increasingly bombastic celebration of Russia's role in the Second World War has been described many ways, from 'cult' to pobedobesie, a Russian neologism that decries the obsession as 'victory fever.' But above all, this celebration bears all the hallmarks of a religion. It has its own holidays (on 9 May and other dates that mark great victories); its own temples (which take the form of memorial and museum complexes both Soviet and new); and holy scripture in the form of novels, films, and textbooks that reiterate a myth of religious sacrifice.' Washington Post: Trump Tells Congress To Raise Taxes On The Rich In Budget Bill New York Times: Intelligence Agencies Increase Focus on Greenland, U.S. Officials Say Indie rock band Arcade Fire releases its new album today: Pink Elephant, produced by Columbia Records. If you haven't already woken up to the Montreal-based band, their performance at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival might do the trick. Do you think the new pope will be a uniter of the world's Catholics?
Straits Times
09-05-2025
- Straits Times
Sticky situation: Boy, 8, uses mum's phone to order over $5,400 worth of lollipops
Twenty-two cases of the candy totalling 50,600 lollies were delivered to Ms Holly LaFavers' house in the south-eastern state of Kentucky. PHOTO: HOLLY LAFAVERS/FACEBOOK Sticky situation: Boy, 8, uses mum's phone to order over $5,400 worth of lollipops A woman in the United States found herself in a sticky situation when her son used her phone to buy nearly 70,000 lollipops online. Ms Holly LaFavers' eight-year-old son Liam placed a bulk order for 30 boxes of Dum-Dum lollipops costing US$4,200 (S$5,460) via her Amazon account, while playing with her phone. She discovered this on May 5 when she checked her bank account and 'immediately panicked' when she saw that her account was in the red. Ms LaFavers said her son, whom she adopted when he was 2½ years old, has foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which results in learning, thinking, physical and behavioural issues. According to the Mayo Clinic, the disorder is caused by mothers who drank alcohol during pregnancy. Ms LaFavers told the Associated Press: 'He told me that he wanted to have a carnival, and he was ordering the Dum-Dums as prizes for his carnival. He was being friendly, he was being kind to his friends.' She tried to cancel the order, but it was too late. By then, Amazon had already delivered 22 cases of the candy, containing 50,600 lollies, to her home in the south-eastern state of Kentucky . 'Liam went outside to ride his scooter and started screaming, 'My suckers are here,'' she told American morning television programme Good Morning America. 'There were just 22 boxes of suckers on our front porch,' she said, adding that she did not receive any alerts that the consignment had been delivered Another eight boxes of the candy with 18,400 lollies arrived two hours later, which Ms LaFavers was able to reject. She said she faced difficulties trying to get a refund from Amazon , so she turned to Facebook for help. 'Hi everyone! Liam ordered 30 cases of Dum-Dums and Amazon will not let me return them. 'Sale: $130 box. Still sealed,' she wrote in a post. Almost immediately, family, friends, neighbours and even strangers offered help and within two hours, every box was purchased. Amazon eventually agreed to give her a full refund, Ms LaFavers said. 'After a long day of working with the bank and talking to a few news stations, Amazon called, and they are refunding my money!!!' she said in an updated Facebook post later on that day. 'Thank you to everyone that offered to buy a box to help us. I will be happy to get you what you 'ordered' or donate them to a charity of your choice.' In a statement to People magazine, Amazon confirmed that it had issued a full refund. 'We're glad we were able to work directly with this customer to turn a sticky situation into something sweet,' the company said. Separately, Mr Kirk Vashaw, CEO of Dum Dums, told People: 'We are excited to hear about such an enthusiastic Dum-Dums fan. We love that so many people jumped in to offer to buy the extra cases and that the family was ultimately reimbursed. We'd also like to offer Liam a job interview in the next 10 to 15 years.' Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Her 8-year-old son bought nearly 70,000 lollipops. How to fix an online ordering error
It's a cautionary lesson for parents with an Amazon account. A Kentucky mother was stunned when an Amazon order arrived on May 4. Her 8-year-old son yelled, 'Mom, my suckers are here!' It wasn't just a bag of suckers. Holly LaFavers' son Liam, 8, mistakenly ordered $4,200 worth of Dum-Dum suckers. That's 30 cases or nearly 70,000 lollipops. 'When I looked at my bank account … it was in the red,' LaFavers said, adding that she panicked because she'd recently gotten paid and the first of the month had just passed. Liam was only trying to add some lollipops to the family's Amazon cart. However, he mistakenly ordered the candy instead. LaFavers immediately called Amazon to rectify the situation, and the company told her she needed to reject the delivery, and then she could get her money back. The only problem was that the delivery carrier did not knock on her door, which is located at the back of a condominium building, LaFavers said. She had no idea the lollipops were delivered, so she couldn't reject them, leaving her with 22 boxes. A few hours later, she stopped a second delivery driver from dropping off more candy. 'I went flying out the door and met the woman at the door screaming 'Don't take those out of your van,'' LaFavers recalled, adding that she was thankful she caught the second delivery driver so she could reject the remaining eight boxes of lollipops. Pharmacies closing: Where are Rite Aid locations closing across the US? What to know amid bankruptcy While LaFavers was able to stop that second delivery, she said she was still left with 22 boxes of Dum-Dums. As a single mother who works with children and families, she needed to make sure she got her money back, so she took to social media to see if any locals wanted to buy them. Some people stepped up to help, but after local news station WKYT contacted her and offered to connect her to Amazon, the company had a change of heart and said they'd refund her $4,200. Amazon spokesperson Austin Stowe said on May 7 that the company worked with the family to resolve the situation. 'We're glad we were able to work directly with this customer to turn a sticky situation into something sweet,' Stowe said. The LaFavers ended up donating the lollipops. Some went to those who previously offered to buy some, while others went to different organizations. Liam and his mother also went to donate some of the suckers on May 6 to their church, Immanuel Baptist Church. "You can give some to your granddaughters," Liam told the church's lead pastor as he dropped off the lollipops on May 6. As of May 7, they have about six boxes left, LaFavers said. There are a number of ways to deal with purchasing errors. Here are a few tips: Monitor your young children when they are on your computer, tablet or phone. If your Amazon account is open when your child is on the computer, check your account to make sure nothing was purchased. Log out of your account when done shopping online. Close tabs on your internet browser when you are done shopping. Sign up for text message notifications when a purchase is made from your Amazon account. Contact your bank, credit card company or Amazon to try and recover funds if a purchase is made without your consent. If you have noticed an order that was made by mistake or you've changed your mind, you can cancel the order on Amazon. To cancel an order before they are shipped: Log in to your account Click on "Your Orders." Select the item you want canceled and click "Cancel items." If you would like, you can provide a reason for the cancellation. To cancel an order after it was shipped: Log in to your account Go to your orders Select the request cancellation option and proceed The items will be returned to Amazon, and you will receive a refund if a payment was made You can return eligible items to Amazon – whether 30 cases of Dum-Dums is eligible would be a question for Amazon. Here is the process for returns: Log in to your Amazon account Go to Your Orders to display your recent orders. To return a gift, go to Return a Gift. Choose the order and select Return or Replace Items. Select the item that you want to return. Then select an option from the Reason for return menu. Choose how to process your return. If applicable, select to issue a refund or replacement. For items sold by an Amazon seller, submit a return request. The Amazon seller reviews return requests before issuing a refund or replacement. For more information, go to Returns to Third-Party Sellers. If you don't receive a response within two business days, you can request an A-to-Z Guarantee Refund. Select your preferred return method. Print your return label and return authorization. Add your return label (if applicable) and package your items for return. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Child buys nearly 70,000 lollipops. How to prevent bad Amazon orders
Indian Express
08-05-2025
- Indian Express
Kentucky woman discovers 8-year-old son bought 70,000 lollipops from Amazon; leaves her a Rs 3 lakh bill
A mom from Kentucky got the surprise of her life when her front porch turned into a candy warehouse. Holly LaFavers was left stunned after discovering that her son Liam, 8, had managed to use her phone to place a massive Amazon order for nearly 70,000 Dum-Dum lollipops. She had no idea what was coming until 22 oversized boxes of the sugary treats showed up at her doorstep. Even though she tried to cancel the order as soon as she realised what Liam had done, it was already too late – the order had been dispatched. But the real punch came when she checked her bank account. 'When I saw what the number was, I just about fainted,' LaFavers told local outlets, referring to the whopping $4,000 (Rs 3.4 lakh, approximately) charge that hit her account. To make things worse, it turned out the candy avalanche wasn't over – eight more cases were still on the way. Holly quickly headed to the post office and was able to intercept and return those remaining boxes. However, dealing with the original delivery proved to be a headache. 'I contacted Amazon as soon as I realized what had happened. They originally told me to reject the delivery and they would refund my money. The driver never knocked or rang the doorbell so now they will not take them back,' she explained in a Facebook post. After spending a whole day going back and forth with the bank and even getting a few news stations involved, she finally caught a break. Amazon agreed to issue a full refund. 'After a long day of working with the bank and talking to a few news stations, Amazon called and they are refunding my money,' she shared online. Needless to say, Holly has since tightened the settings on her phone to prevent Liam from doing any more 'impulse shopping'. The story quickly went viral, with social media lighting up over the hilarious parenting moment. One commenter wrote, 'I'm sorry but this is too funny not to laugh about, but I will cry with you too! Once Landon bought $250 worth of ROBLOX something.' Others could barely contain themselves, flooding the post with 'OMG's and laughing emojis.
