Couple win trip to Japan after toddler orders pay-per-view

Toddlers, aye. Curious, devious little buggers. Full of gas.

Once in a blue moon these small burdens will inadvertently fail in their mischief-making to create a net benefit, to their long-suffering parents' delight.

When Edmonton resident Lee Tappenden got a call at 8.30am on Thursday from Canadian ISP "Shaw Cable" congratulating him on winning a trip to Japan, he thought he was being scammed.

"It was very confusing because I never thought that I entered any type of contest with Shaw."

Tappenden said he was very skeptical and kept questioning the caller.

"I said, 'Is this a scam?' He laughed and said, 'No, this isn't a scam'. And then I said, 'Well, am I going to have to send $500 to a Nigerian prince?' And he said no and he laughed. I still asked him about a hundred questions and I still didn't think it was real."

The caller then sent Tappenden several emails which seemed legitimate, but he was still doubtful so he immediately called Shaw customer service.

"I posed the question, 'Is this contest real or am I getting scammed?' And the first reaction — actually both times when I called and spoke to somebody at Shaw — their first reaction was, 'Don't believe it. It's probably a scam.'

Tappenden's toddler son Anthony is 20 months old and curious about everything, especially, "Anything we don't want him to touch. That's what he wants the most."

It was finally discovered that the toddler accidentally rented Alita: Battle Angel from their cable company's on-demand menu.

Anyone who ordered the movie Alita: Battle Angel was entered into a draw for a seven-day trip for two to Tokyo, Japan (including airfare, hotel and CAD$500 spending money) courtesy of iTravel and 20th Century Fox. And Anthony won.

"It looks like he was the one that ordered the movie by accident, because my wife and I have both never seen it and it was definitely ordered to our account," Tappenden said, adding with the title starting with an "A," it would be easy for a toddler mashing remote buttons to accidentally order the first alphabetical movie."

Despite the frankly illegal entry, the Canadian parents are off to Japan.

Moral of this story: Sometimes toddlers are great. Sometimes.