(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) – One sip on a plastic sparkling water bottle by a pop star and a charity is $624 richer.
Emma Hall-Phillips, a 16-year-old New Zealander, met Canadian pop star Justin Bieber last week while he was in a make-up room at New Zealand ‘s TV3 studio, reported the station. “And five seconds later he comes in to get his makeup and I was like ‘Oh, he’s sitting (less than an inch) away from me,” she said.
Bieber took a sip from the bottle but quickly put it down, saying, “Ew, what’s this?” according to TV3 .
After Bieber left the room, Hall-Phillips’ mom, who works for the TV station, grabbed the bottle and they put it on the auction site TradeMe .
“I put it on TradeMe to see how much I could get from the crazy fans,” the 16-year-old told TV3.
On Sunday, a buyer – parents of a Bieber fanatic whose identity was not available – bid on the bottle and got it for $624 ($855 NZ dollars) reported TV3 . Emma and her mother only expected to get up to around $22 (U.S. dollars) for the water bottle.
The mother and daughter say they plan to donate the money to the cancer charity CanTeen, according to the New Zealand Herald .
“I’m not (a) crazy Justin Bieber fan,” Hall-Phillips says. “I’d rather sell it and give money to a good cause.”
Maybe the extreme price for a plastic water bottle isn’t so surprising when you consider that 16-year-old Bieber has 2.2 million people following him on Twitter .
Like the many pop stars before him, Bieber is mobbed by teenage girls who crave a piece of something he’s come in contact with – a half-eaten Weetbix, an autographed chocolate wrapper, and, of course, the abandoned sparkling water bottle, reports the New Zealand Herald .
