LOS ANGELES—A Los Angeles man has sued Sprint and Nextel after he says he bought two new phones, one of which had porn on it that was seen by his underage son. The incident allegedly took place in October 2011, but Arsen Garibyan filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of his son.
Most situations where porn has made its way onto a supposedly pristine electronic device seem to invove professional porn; in this case, however, the content was allegedly homemade—featuring a male and female sales rep the father recognized from the same Sprint store where he bought the phones!
According to Altadena Patch, Garibyan states in the complaint that he bought the phones at the Sprint store on Lake Avenue in Pasadena, and that both “were packaged in new boxes with original instructions and manuals.” After returning home, his son unpacked one of the phones and started playing games on it.
“After a few minutes,” the complaint continues, “(the boy) started asking, 'Daddy, what is this? When Mr. Garibyan looked at the telephone in (his son's) hand, to his shock, horror and disgust, (the child) was looking at pornographic photos and videos contained on one of the newly purchased phones."
Adding an element of the bizarre, Garibyan further claims the content included “full-body naked as well as genital-focused graphic pictures and videos of the Sprint Nextel sales representatives.”
CBS News is reporting that Garibyan’s claims are not being refuted by Sprint, which commented in an email, ‘This incident occurred at a retail store in Pasadena that was selling Sprint products. Sprint does not condone this behavior. The sales representatives allegedly implicated were NOT Sprint employees. We terminated our relationship with this dealer shortly after the incident. Our investigation into this matter continues."
The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, fraud, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
