Kentucky

‘Sticky situation’: Kentucky mom gets refund after boy orders 70,000 Dum-Dums lollipops

Published

8 months ago

May 7, 2025

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‘Sticky situation’: Kentucky mom gets refund after boy orders 70,000 Dum-Dums lollipops

Holly LaFavers, who lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her 8-year-old son Liam, learned her son purchased 70,000 lollipops from Amazon May 3.
The lollipops cost $4,200 and emptied her bank account, though she ended up getting a refund May 5.

What started as a nightmare scenario for a Lexington mother has turned into a heartwarming story of community support after she was refunded for roughly 70,000 Dum-Dums lollipops her 8-year-old son mistakenly ordered from Amazon.

Holly LaFavers and her son, Liam, were getting ready for church the morning of May 4. Everything was normal — until she checked her bank account and found it in the negative. The cause of the overdrawn account? A $4,200 charge for 30 boxes of Dum-Dums — each box containing 2,300 lollipops.

“I had just gotten paid, and so we had run a bunch of errands the day before,” LaFavers said. “I was just looking to see like how much we had spent the day before, but when I opened up my bank account, it was in the red, and so I completely panicked.”

She learned her son had placed the order while playing on her phone May 3. Liam occasionally plays on his mother’s phone and browses Amazon, though he normally only puts items in the cart.

“He is not allowed to touch the ‘Buy Now’ button. He knows that. I truly do not know how this happened, because typically at night, I’ll just go in and delete everything out of my Amazon account that he’s put in there,” LaFavers said.

The discovery of a drained bank account upended the single mother’s day, setting off a series of calls with Amazon representatives as she tried to get the purchase refunded. They instructed her to reject the order when the delivery driver arrived, so she waited.

“I had no money, I had no ability to put gas in my car or nothing, and so we stayed home from church, watching the app and just making sure that we did not miss the delivery truck,” LaFavers said.

But that plan was derailed when the first 22 boxes of lollipops were delivered without a knock, with no delivery driver in sight by the time Liam found them on the front stoop while he was out for a scooter ride.

There were eight more boxes yet to be delivered, which arrived later that day and were successfully sent back with the driver, LaFavers said.

She still, however, had nearly two dozen boxes of lollipops on her hands — more than any mother-son duo could need. So she found a solution: Sell them.

She posted about the ordeal on Facebook, and many people from her hometown of Somerset took her up on the offer.

“Those individuals were the ones who really stepped up,” LaFavers said “One person said that one of the banks in town will take five of the boxes. And my chiropractor that I saw in Somerset, he said that he would take two of the boxes.”

LaFavers’ good fortune continued May 5 when Amazon agreed to refund the $4,200.

Amazon spokesperson Austin Stowe confirmed the refund, writing in a statement: “We’re glad we were able to work directly with this customer to turn a sticky situation into something sweet.”

With her bank account back in the positive, LaFavers still had heaps of lollipops to offload. She decided not to sell them, instead opting to donate them to charities.

After coming into her life as a 4-month-old baby, Liam was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder at age 4, LaFavers said. The condition can cause a range of physical, behavioral and cognitive impairments as a result of exposure to alcohol before birth, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

For Liam, it affects his ability to anticipate the consequences of his decisions, LaFavers said. It also causes him to hyper-fixate on things, which is why she believes he was looking at lollipops in the first place. Liam has been infatuated with carnivals as of late, LaFavers said, and he told her that he wanted to use the lollipops as prizes for winning games.

Just like he imagined that fateful day, Liam now gets get to give away thousands of lollipops — something he’s been thoroughly enjoying.

“He would honestly give the shirt off his back, like it makes him feel good,” she said. “He would give you anything that he has, and so he has truly, truly found joy in giving his suckers.”

Contact reporter Killian Baarlaer at kbaarlaer@gannett.com or @bkillian72 on X.

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Kentucky

Kentucky Women’s Basketball gets historic win over No. 5 Oklahoma

Published

16 hours ago

January 11, 2026

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Kentucky Women’s Basketball gets historic win over No. 5 Oklahoma

The No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats moved to 16-2 on the season after a massive win over the No. 5 Oklahoma Sooners by a final score of 63-57. Kenny Brooks’ squad’s successful season rolls on with a second top-five win, the most the UK women’s team has ever had in a single season.

The Wildcats pulled out a close win thanks to senior Tonie Morgan, who totaled 22 points (8/19 FG), eight rebounds, and four assists. Morgan also played all 40 minutes on Sunday evening against the Sooners as her stellar season continues.

The Wildcats also played strong defense all night. As a team, they totaled four steals and eight blocks. Clara Strack, the 6-foot-5 senior, led the team with three blocks. Strack also recorded her ninth double-double of the season. They held the Sooners to 24-67 shooting (36%) from FG range and 2-19 from deep (11%).

The Wildcats held the Sooners scoreless in the last four minutes and moved to 3-1 in SEC play and now have three top-25 wins this season after previously winning at Louisville and at LSU.

Between the transfer portal, a men’s basketball win, and a women’s basketball win, it has been a great weekend in the Bluegrass!

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Kentucky

Mark Pope updates injury status of Jayden Quaintance

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Mark Pope updates injury status of Jayden Quaintance

The Kentucky Wildcats had to return to the court Saturday night without their star center in Jayden Quaintance.

Coming back to the court from an ACL tear last season, Quaintance shined in his opening game against St. John’s and has eased himself back into game-play after nine months off the court. That is why it came as a surprise on Friday night when he was listed as out on the injury report.

Well, we got some more insight into why he was held out against Mississippi State in the pregame radio show. When asked about the injury, here is what Mark Pope had to say.

“He’s (Quaintance) just had a little bit of swelling, so we’re just kind of monitoring it,” Pope said. “And the most important thing is just his health. So, it’s going to be a little start and stop as we go. That’s just the process.”

So, for now, it doesn’t sound like anything that will keep JQ out for too long, though it’s unknown if he’ll return for either of next week’s games at LSU and at Tennessee.

The Cats have started to piece it together in the front court, but there is no denying the potential Quaintance has. When healthy, he is an NBA lottery pick. Now let’s hope he can get back onto the court soon to help the Cats make a run.

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Kentucky

Kentucky vs Mississippi State score today, UK basketball game updates

Published

2 days ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Kentucky vs Mississippi State score today, UK basketball game updates

LEXINGTON — Two days after Kentucky basketball gave up a game-ending 15-2 run in a 73-68 loss to Missouri, Mark Pope was asked to explain what went wrong.

In a sense, Pope answered it with another question: What didn’t go wrong for his club in those final 4 ½ minutes?

“It was everything, actually,” Pope said during a news conference Friday. “It was so much misfortune. It was so much stuff in our wheelhouse that we inexplicably didn’t execute the way we normally do. It was some poor communication. It was some poor internalization of the scout. It was some missed shots. It was some coaching error.

“… (All) of those things lead to that terrible, terrible 4 ½ minutes.”

Stream Kentucky vs. Mississippi State

After falling to 0-2 in SEC play for the first time in two decades (2005-06), the Wildcats have no time to feel sorry for themselves. And Pope won’t allow it.

“I think everybody has mental fatigue everywhere right now — if you’re putting your whole heart and soul into it,” he said of his team (9-6). “But that’s our job: to not let that have any impact on today or yesterday or tomorrow. One of the things I love about sports is it teaches you that you have to. It doesn’t matter how bad things get. You can’t go back and rewrite what happened.”

Kentucky only can look forward, which begins with tonight’s matchup with Mississippi State at Rupp Arena. The Bulldogs (10-5, 2-0) enter on a six-game win streak.

Courier Journal sports reporter Ryan Black is at Rupp Arena and will have live updates throughout the game — here and on X, formerly known as Twitter — and complete coverage after. You can follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

Follow along with live updates from today’s game between the Wildcats and Bulldogs below:

TV channel: SEC Network
Livestream: Fubo (free trial)

The game between the Wildcats and Bulldogs will air nationally on SEC Network.

Authenticated subscribers can access SEC Network via TV-connected devices or by going to WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app.

Those without cable can access SEC Network via streaming services, with Fubo offering a free trial.

Stream Kentucky vs. Mississippi State on SEC Network

Betting odds: Kentucky is a 10 ⅟₂-point favorite (-112) on DraftKings, which set the over/under at 153 ⅟₂ points (-112/-108).

Tom Leach (play-by-play) and Jack Givens (analyst) will have the UK radio network call on 840 AM in Louisville and both 630 AM and 98.1 FM in Lexington.

You can also listen online via UKAthletics.com.

Oct. 17: Blue-White game (Click here to read takeaways from the intrasquad scrimmage.)
Oct. 24: exhibition vs. Purdue (Rupp Arena) ∣ SCORE: Kentucky 78, Purdue 65
Oct. 30: exhibition vs. Georgetown University (Rupp Arena) ∣ SCORE: Georgetown 84, Kentucky 70
Nov. 4: Nicholls (Rupp Arena) ∣ SCORE: Kentucky 77, Nicholls 51
Nov. 7: Valparaiso (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 107, Valparaiso 59
Nov. 11: at Louisville (KFC Yum! Center) | SCORE: Louisville 96, Kentucky 88
Nov. 14: Eastern Illinois (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 99, Eastern Illinois 53
Nov. 18: vs. Michigan State (Champions Classic; Madison Square Garden, New York) | SCORE: Michigan State 83, Kentucky 66
Nov. 21: Loyola University Maryland (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 88, Loyola Maryland 46
Nov. 26: Tennessee Tech (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 104, Tennessee Tech 54
Dec. 2: North Carolina (Rupp Arena; ACC/SEC Challenge) | SCORE: North Carolina 67, Kentucky 64
Dec. 5: vs. Gonzaga (Bridgestone Arena; Nashville) | SCORE: Gonzaga 94, Kentucky 59
Dec. 9: North Carolina Central (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 103, North Carolina Central 67
Dec. 13: Indiana (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 72, Indiana 60
Dec. 20: vs. St. John’s (CBS Sports Classic; State Farm Arena, Atlanta) | SCORE: Kentucky 78, St. John’s 66
Dec. 23: Bellarmine (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Kentucky 99, Bellarmine 85
Jan. 3: at Alabama | SCORE: Alabama 89, Kentucky 74
Jan. 7: Missouri (Rupp Arena) | SCORE: Missouri 73, Kentucky 68
Jan. 10: Mississippi State (Rupp Arena), 8:30 p.m.
Jan. 14: at LSU, 7 p.m.
Jan. 17: at Tennessee, noon
Jan. 21: Texas (Rupp Arena), 7 p.m.
Jan. 24: Ole Miss (Rupp Arena), noon
Jan. 27: at Vanderbilt, 9 p.m.
Jan. 31: at Arkansas, 6:30 p.m.
Feb. 4: Oklahoma (Rupp Arena), 9 p.m.
Feb. 7: Tennessee (Rupp Arena), 8:30 p.m.
Feb. 14: at Florida, 3 p.m.
Feb. 17: Georgia (Rupp Arena), 9 p.m.
Feb. 21: at Auburn, 8:30 p.m.
Feb. 24: at South Carolina, 7 p.m.
Feb. 28: Vanderbilt (Rupp Arena), 2 p.m.
March 3: at Texas A&M, 7 p.m.
March 7: Florida (Rupp Arena), 4 p.m.