Strangers donate over $10K to woman after son mistakenly drained her bank account

A Phoenix mother has expressed her gratitude to strangers who offered her financial assistance after her autistic son mistakenly zeroed her bank account by making purchases on the Roblox gaming platform. 

In an interview with 12News, Kayla Howard said her autistic son was playing on Roblox when he spent $897 on the platform. She said that ultimately drained her bank account, leaving her with a negative account of more than $1000 as a result of overdraft fees. 

Howard is a single mother of four children, and she works two jobs to take care of them. Only one of her children doesn’t have autism. After Howard’s story was shared, mothers and parents in her situation as well as people who also mistakenly spent on Roblox offered to help.

Howard then set up a GoFundMe with a $1,244 goal. “I set the goal to $1,244 and that’s because that’s how negative my account was,” she said. But the support Howard received from the community was overwhelming. She received over $10,000 in donations. “The last time I checked it was at $10,979 dollars!” she said. “Ten times the goal.”

Howard, who used some of the proceeds to purchase a Christmas tree and gifts for her children, said she plans to return the favor. “What I’m most excited about doing is actually starting a non-profit named after my daughter specifically to help families of children with autism,” she said.

And though Howard said the year wasn’t a rosy one, she said she’s optimistic about the new year. “Thank you to everyone who supported myself and my children during this time. Thank you for reminding me that there are good people in this world,” she said.

Besides the commendable gesture from her donors, Roblox also refunded the money her son spent. To prevent an incident of such nature from happening again, Howard has also changed the payment method of the Roblox apps on her children’s devices, 12News reported.