- It’s hard to be a conscious consumer when you’re unconscious.
Imagine an Amazon package containing a seemingly random item showing up at your door. How nice — someone must’ve bought you a present!
But then you check your Amazon account and credit card statement to find that you bought the item. Only, you have zero memory of doing so.
What happened? Did you buy the thing in your sleep?
If you’re Kelly Knipes, yes. And it’s not an isolated incident, either.
The 42-year-old British woman suffers from a bizarre disorder where she shops in her sleep. While it might sound like a made-up story to hide her shopping addiction, it’s a verified medical condition in her case.
It also might sound funny, but the nearly $4,000 in credit card debt she managed to rack up is everything but a laughing matter. Not only that, she’s handed her personal information to scammers while in an unconscious state.
“It’s really upsetting and frustrating going to bed thinking, ‘I don’t know what the night is going to lead to,’” Knipes told the International Business Times.
Escalating Sleep Disorders
Sleeping has never come particularly easy for Knipes. For years, she has suffered from sleep apnea, a condition causing disrupted breathing patterns during sleep.
Additionally, each of her three children suffers from a set of disabilities, from epilepsy to deafness and learning disabilities. As such, she doesn’t want to sleep too soundly, lest she miss a child needing something.
However, her sleep issues got a lot worse after the birth of her first child. Shortly afterward, she started sleepwalking.
From there, her unconscious behavior kept getting more and more unusual. She would wake up to find all her windows and doors open, or her furniture moved around.
Finally, Knipes started making online purchases while fast asleep. In 2018, she received an official diagnosis of parasomnia caused by her sleep apnea.
Parasomnia is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of sleep disorders that involve peculiar behavior while asleep. Parasomnias can range from sleepwalking to talking in your sleep to night terrors — and sleep shopping.
A Big Spender
Knipes, who runs an events service, has been a very active nighttime shopper. She has bought a wide variety of things, from small to big.
Some unplanned purchases she has found on her doorstep have included things like salt and pepper shakers, instructional textbooks for teachers, cans of paint, a children’s playhouse, a bulk order of Haribo candy, tables, and refrigerators.
Yet, the most bizarre purchase must be the plastic basketball court. It came with a pole, basket hoop, net, backboard, and a fold-up playing surface.
“I was racking up debt everywhere. I would never actually have to put any credit card details when I was buying things online because it was all saved on my phone,” said Knipes.
Altogether, Knipes says she managed to accumulate $3,800 in credit card debt. Well, no biggie — she can just return the items, right?
That’s easier said than done. Some items, like all the candy, were ineligible for returns due to being perishable.
Others, Knipes kept due to her kids.
“I kept the tins of paint and the play house because when that arrived and my kids saw it, I felt I couldn’t return it,” she said.
Knipes seems to have taken her credit card off her phone now and has paid off her debt. But that’s not the end of her worries.
Conmen’s Favorite
As you can see from the eclectic items she purchased, Knipes wasn’t a particularly discerning consumer when sleep shopping. That led her to fall for online identity fraud.
While asleep, Knipes received a text message claiming the British government wanted to give her some money to “help her with her bills.” All she had to do was fill out the accompanying form asking for her personal and bank details.
“I wouldn’t have replied to it if I was awake,” said Knipes.
Her sleeping self, however, happily gave away the sensitive data.
“I gave them all my details, then when I woke up, they had taken $317 out of my bank account,” she said.
And the thing about online scams is that once you fall for one, other fraudsters will start circling you like sharks. Knipes believes the original scammer has sold her personal information, because she’s had to wrangle with additional fraud attempts ever since.
“I’ve had to cancel cards a few times, and I’ve had lots of people try to take money out of my bank,” she confessed.
Fortunately, after the initial scam, Knipes’ bank has been actively monitoring her transactions. According to her, they have blocked further unauthorized transfers.
Knipes has received a CPAP machine that has helped her issues. However, that has introduced another problem — the device can force her jaw to lock up, so she tends to remove it in her sleep.
Nonetheless, Knipes believes her condition isn’t the end of the world.
“It’s just something that happens that I have to deal with, but it’s the least of my problems. In the grand scheme of things, I just focus on my children.”