In a new variation on the “brick in a box” scam, a South Carolina woman who thought she purchased an iPad from two men in a McDonald’s parking lot discovered yesterday that the purported tablet was actually “a piece of wood painted black with an Apple logo.”
According to a Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office report, Ashley McDowell, 22, told deputies that she was approached by two black males who claimed to have purchased iPads in bulk and were selling them for $300 apiece. After McDowell explained that she only had $180, the duo agreed to sell her the device at a cut rate.
But when McDowell drove home and opened the FedEx box containing the iPad, she instead discovered the wood with the Apple logo. The “screen”–which was framed with black tape–included replicas of iPad icons for Safari, mail, photos, and an iPod. It also had what cops described as a “Best Buy sales ticket…”
Deputies have dusted the phony iPad for fingerprints. McDowell told probers that the swindlers were driving “a white Impala with no rims and no tint.” One of the men, she noted, “had a gold tooth.”
Har.
I have great respect for the sellers for taking the time to half ass some apple logo stuff and paint it black.
They didn’t have to put that much effort in but they did.
You know what.
She’s 22 years old.
Old enough to vote.
iWood
Later that day she got a great deal on some left over “totally professional” speakers.
In some respects the odd thing is that these guys went to the trouble of making their wooden Ipad vaguely resemble the real thing. Of course anyone who opened the box was going to know it wasn’t the real thing so why bother? A sense of humor?
I would have assumed based on the offer that it was stolen but then I’d have assumed that anyone with a brain would have demanded to see the unit before parting with the cash even if they were willing to purchase stolen property.
I for one feel very sad for the lady and hope that Apple PR can somehow find a way for this poor unfortunate.
I heard that Apple is going after the two sellers for copyright infringement and some patents!
Holy Cow! I just read 26 posts and nobody commented about how the article noted that the salesmen were black. Some of the “low side of the bell curve” (former) habitues here must have left.
Another Apple employee ‘accidentally’ left another prototype electronic device in another bar… aaaand there it is!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hP0kWqJJZa4
Recently I bought a “Modification Kit” for $5 from Craigs list. It was supposed to have a metal nipper which is all I wanted from the kit. The guy said he had never even openned the box. We met at his place at work ((a salesman of some kind of service)) and the box looked unopened, original, and legit. I handed him 5 bucks and then said: “Let’s open it up and make sure everything is there.” and he said he had never opened it. I laughed and said I was joking–on my way to Fry’s for a hard drive after all.
Got home. Everything was in the kit except the metal nipper. I called the guy up and told him we should have opened the box just to confirm that HE had not been ripped off when he had bought the modification kit.
I’m still kinda “shocked” that somebody would scam someone else for 5 – five – dollar while letting the victim know where they worked.
So, I actually check all my large dollar purchases at the store to protect against the brick scam. Large dollar used to be about $50 and I’ve never found a brick==in a store.
I still wonder what is more important: 5 bucks or taking life easy, as it comes?
5 bucks. Guy had all his teeth too.
Ha, ha.
she should have taken it to the aNus bar to see why is ddint work.
#11 They abandoned the hardware, NOT the platform.
Anyway, at least the wood iPad can be useful in many ways, unlike the actual item.
I wouldn’t be so quick to laugh at the woman who was scammed. It probably looks like the real thing if wrapped in that translucent bubbly packaging that apple uses. At least good enough so you could open the box and ‘check’ the contents. If whatever it’s made out of is dense enough (high density fiberboard?) maybe the crooks could even hand it to the customer and say ‘look it’s new, even the packaging is unopened’.
I just watched a movie by a director I hadn’t heard of before so I looked it up on IMDB and found out she had been killed when walking into her hotel room and finding a burglar.
So easy to confront a person/stranger rather than simply turn and run. Need to train yourself for that unnatural action==just like coming home at night and your front door has been jimmied.
So–I do wonder what all the other circumstances where such that once you have gone so far its safer to just give the money over and go with the flow? I’ve never bought anything out of the truck of a car. Craigs list isn’t the trunk of a car is it?
Ha, ha. Yes, training oneself how to react to maximize your safety takes time and intent. What would you do with a gun put in your side and you are told to get in a car?
Experts fairly uniformly say to do one thing. Know what it is?????
Ha, ha. Yes–who would choose to more likely die over whatever is in your purse? None, if we could think thru it. pratice.
Rinse and repeat. You only get one go round.
Bobbo, you are one off-topic strange fuckin’ dude.
Do not buy from strangers outside a store.
Be aware of your surroundings, and always be ready to react if said surroundings offer an intruder.
Diversion and submission, give up your belongings *be ready to run* “Fling & Flee”
If you come across a situation, use your phone or better yet your right to bear & use arms
There’s an app for that
I thought the topic was crime? No?
Cliff–Fling and Flee==quite right.
With 5 years of judo and karate training in Japan it took me years to figure out why I should flee rather than fight. A good friend of mine who had similar training said: “Run with Confidence.”
I really like that. I once saw a fender bender in San Fran. Two dudes got out, big guy threw a punch, little guy ducked and punched back. Big guy lost his balance, hit his head on the street. DOWN GOES FRAZIER, as Oberman would say: big guy dead. I’ll bet he could afford the bumper repair many times over. Well—he used to.
Run with Confidence, my friends: Run with Confidence.
MARCOS, TE QUIERO!!