A Walmart customer was completely shocked when her recently purchased television began displaying live video from another person’s home.
TikToker Helene Braaten (@hrbaaten16) said her friend had bought a Roku TV. According to her, it was previously owned and returned. Because the original owner never logged out of their account, the new buyer started seeing footage from inside a stranger’s house.
What happened with this Roku TV from Walmart?
“Apparently, Roku has this thing where you can go and look at the camera through the TV, so you can monitor your house and stuff through your TV,” @hrbaaten16 explained. “About a week ago, things started popping up at the bottom of the TV screen. It’s some random person’s house that bought the TV [and] returned it to Walmart.”
The friend couldn’t log out of the account because it required a password. When she called Walmart, staff reportedly told her the situation was “weird” and advised her to perform a factory reset.
Braaten further clarified the situation. “The TV was bought and returned to Walmart by the previous buyer and Walmart just packed it back up and resold it as ‘new’ to my friend. The previous buyer logged into their account on the TV and didn’t log out.”
She continued, “They have actual Roku cameras installed in their house and the camera they had was connected to the TV through the Roku account to be able to watch the live stream of said camera footage. So when my friend bought said TV, it already had their account logged in on it, therefore the reason for being able to see it on the TV at my friend’s house.”
The video has since drawn more than 250,000 views. It sparked discussion about what happens when returned electronics are resold without being fully wiped. It raised the question: What should you do if you get a TV that can see into someone else’s home?
Clarification regarding the camera
While terrifying to think that there’s a camera attached to every Roku TV, that isn’t exactly the case. You have to buy a camera to go with the Roku TV; it doesn’t come with the device. The reason Braaten’s friend has access to another’s cameras is that they set up their Roku TV and Roku cameras. It connected them to their account. If you don’t personally purchase Roku cameras or set them up, you won’t be able to livestream on the device.
Walmart selling ‘brand new’ TVs
Many commenters pointed out that it’s likely Walmart sold Braaten’s friend a TV that wasn’t brand new or factory reset. The “resold” TV seems to be a common occurrence, with other people joking that they got free Netflix passwords or logins to streaming through the previous owners.
@hrbaaten16 #roku #rokucam #walmart #fypシ゚viral #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp ♬ original sound – Helene Braaten
The Mary Sue has reached out to Walmart as well as Braaten for comment.
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