A three-year-old boy named Jack Neal reportedly used his mother's computer to buy a Ł9,000 ($17,067.34) car on Internet auction site eBay.

The boy's parents discovered their son's successful bid when they received a message from eBay about the Barbie pink Nissan Figaro. His mother Rachel Neal, 36, told the Sun, "We couldn't understand what was happening. Neither of us had bought anything. So we checked and saw it was a Barbie-pink car which we'd bought for Ł8,999. We flew into a panic."

Neal, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire had accidentally saved her eBay password in her computer and Jack had used the "buy it now" button.

She said, "Jack's a whiz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons. I was just horrified. We now have the parental locks on - and we make sure we sign out of eBay!"

Her husband John, 37, who had called the seller of the car to explain the situation said, "Luckily he saw the funny side and said he would re-advertise."

The seller of the second-hand car, Paul Jones, co-director of Worcester Road Motors in Stourport-on-Severn, near Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said he had been "amused" by the bid. "I had a phone call explaining what had happened and as soon as I heard it was a young boy who had done it by mistake I canceled the bid and re-advertised the car.'

He continues, "He must have good taste in cars. We've all got children and they do silly things at times, so it was no problem," he added.