An 11-year-old child has shocked his family by stealing thousands of dollars in order to buy Robux for Roblox. The move has not only left his family members stunned but has also raised questions as to why a young child was able to buy thousands of dollars worth of Roblox Robux in the first place.
Roblox is a free-to-play game, and like most F2P titles, it includes microtransactions. Gamers can buy Robux, the in-game currency, to do everything from buy new avatars to accessing premium content, but the title still offers plenty to do without spending any money. However, it seems that at least one child wasn’t satisfied with settling with the free offerings.
11-Year-Old Steals from Family to Buy Robux
A 11-year-old and his family have now made the news after his parents realized that the child had stolen money to buy Robux. According to his parents, Hong Jin and Jason Kim, their child apparently stole an envelope containing emergency savings of $2,000 with the plan to buy Roblox gift cards while shopping at a Walmart with his grandmother. He apparently snuck away after being left in the toy section, and took his ill-gained funds to buy gift cards for Robux for the full $2,000. The boy apparently kept the theft and purchases a secret, with the parents only realizing that the money had disappeared after the fact.
Find the odd one out before the timer hits zero.
As one might expect, the parents returned to Walmart with the gift cards and receipt in an attempt to get their money back. However, Walmart has a no refund policy on gift cards, as do most retailers these days, particularly due to the risk of scams. The parents are still shocked that their young child was able to buy $2,000 worth of gift cards at Walmart, but according to Walmart’s rules, everything was by the book. Buyers at Walmart Canada can only buy $1,000 worth of gift cards in a single transaction, but rather than settling for spending half of his parents’ stolen money, he instead made two purchases of $1,000, consisting of five $200 Roblox gift cards each. Walmart Canada also has no age restrictions in place for buying gift cards, so there were no significant safeguards in place to prevent the purchase from happening.
Unfortunately, barring Walmart deciding to make a one-time exception for the family, it seems what’s done is done, and the money can’t be returned to the family by any means. It’s not clear what, if any, action the parents will take to punish their child for stealing. In a conversation with CTV, the two mostly expressed bewilderment at the idea that a child could spend that much money at Walmart without it raising any warning flags. His mother also expressed concerns that Roblox is addictive.
This is far from the first time that children have made the news for stealing from their parents and other relatives in order to play games. In one case, a child spent nearly $10,000 on FIFA in-game purchases by using his dad’s credit card, while in an even more shocking scenario, a daughter spent an eye-watering $20,000 to perform Genshin Impact gacha pulls. In that latter case, the parent was able to get a refund, but clearly, not everyone is so lucky when their kids decide to steal in order to pay for microtransactions.
- Released
-
September 1, 2006
- ESRB
-
Teen / Diverse Content: Discretion Advised,
In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items), Users Interact - Developer(s)
-
Roblox Corporation
- Publisher(s)
-
Roblox Corporation
