A mother and her 13-year-old daughter got more than they bargained for when they activated their new RadioShack cell phones in June 2011, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Marcia Jones alleges in a civil lawsuit against Sprint and RadioShack that after she and her daughter Morgan returned home from purchasing what they believed to be new Sprint HTC Evo 4G cell phones at Stonecrest Mall in Lithonia, Ga., Morgan discovered adult and child pornography uploaded by a previous user on her device. Morgan required counseling after viewing the graphic media, the New York Daily News reports.
Curt Thompson, the Jones’ attorney, told the Daily News that RadioShack’s actions were unacceptable.
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“The reality is that RadioShack was attempting to refurbish and sell old phones,” Thompson said. “It was unconscionable to allow that to happen and to expect that not to do harm or damage to someone.”
The Journal-Constitution reported that RadioShack offered to replace the devices, but Marcia Jones isn’t satisfied with this compensation. She doesn’t want others to share her daughter’s experience with the obscene images, which motivated the lawsuit filed for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “deceptive trade practices,” according to the Daily News.
Sprint and RadioShack have 30 days to respond to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, the Journal-Constitution reports. RadioShack did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily News and the Journal-Constitution.
Customers have been surprised by porn on supposedly new devices in the past. ABC News reported in 2009 that a Texas mother bought a phone she thought was unused as a birthday present for her 11-year-old son at a local mall, but she and her son realized it contained a naked photo of a woman along with profane text messages.
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