Woman Buys Wooden iPad From Parking Lot Scammers

Want to get a good deal on a new iPad? The parking lot probably isn’t the best place to look. A woman in South Carolina bought an iPad out of the back of an Impala in a McDonald’s parking lot for $180. When Ashley McDowell, 22 got home and opened the Fed Ex box, she discovered that what she really purchased was a slab of wood.

At least the scammers had the decency to slap on a couple of apple stickers and paint on logos for email and safari. The two men even painted the “screen,” slapped on a Best Buy sticker, and wrapped the slab of wood in black tape to give the block that famous Apple style.

The New York Daily News reports that the two men (one of whom had a gold tooth) had told Ashley that they had bought iPads in bulk and were now selling them, out of their car, at a deep discount.

This sounded perfectly legit to Ashley.

The men told Ashley that they would sell her the $500 iPad for just $300. When Ashley told them she only had $180 on her, the two men quickly lowered their price and agreed to the deal.

Ashley had no problem with this either.

And when the two men handed her the taped up cardboard box, Ashley apparently had no problem with that either.

I’m assuming that the Apple sticker, app logos, and black tape fooled the young woman as well. But once she realized that her iPad wouldn’t advance from the home screen, she realized that something was up.

McDowell phoned the police, but authorities aren’t confident that they’ll catch ol’ golden tooth and his scamming comrade. According to the Smoking Gun, police in South Carolina dusted the wooden slab for fingerprints, but were not close to making an arrest.

But $180 for a custom piece of wood… That’s not a bad deal, right?

[Hat tip to Alcoholics Inconspicuous]