In what must be considered the adult, e-commerce equivalent of "the dog ate my homework", a New York man has fingered his own daughter for accidently buying on eBay a 1969 Mercedes once owned by Elvis Presley for a cool $245,000.

Jason Shepherd used eBay's "Buy it Now!" facility to secure the automobile, or rather, he didn't, because he reckons "that the bid was a mistake made when his daughter accidentally hit a key on his computer".

That's how the Merc's owner, Gene Epstein of Philadelphia, describes Shepherd's epic excuse for renegeing on the deal. For his part, Epstein is having none of it, and is suing Shepherd for the cash plus $150k in damages. His lawsuit - filed in the US District Court in Philadelphia - states: "Once an item is removed from the active sale list on eBay and listed as sold, its reappearance on the active auction listings creates the impression that the item being sold is in some way unsaleable or unmarketable."

In an attack of good sense, though, Epstein says he will drop the matter if Shepherd issues an apology as drafted by Epstein himself, and coughs up a token amount. ®

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