There's an old adage that fits here: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Look, no one's going to sell a $500 iPad for $300, let alone $180. They're certainly not going to do it out of the trunk of a car. My first thought, long before "I wonder if they're selling a block of wood in that box" would be if the merchandise was stolen. "Receiving stolen property" is a pretty serious crime, and one that I want no part of.But this story hits closer to home. Apparently a South Carolina woman who thought she was buying an Apple iPad for the bargain price of $180 belatedly realized she'd just bought a piece of wood.
We've heard of people wanting the Apple iPad so badly that all common sense seems to fly out the window, like the kid in China who sold his kidney for one.
What really floors me is that this stupid bint was approached by two men in a McDonald's parking lot about a complex piece of computer hardware. She's offered this bit of hardware at a substantially reduced price - and yet waits until she gets home before opening a Fed Ex box that's supposed to hold the iPad? I wonder how often EMS crews are called to her house because she forgets to chew her food before ramming it down her gullet.
And another thing - these guys took the time to actually paint the block of wood to look like an iPad. I can't decide if that's ballsy or just plain stupid. I guess in a dark parking lot the quick paint job might fool the stupid people, but if you're getting people to bite on a Fed Ex box in a McDonald's parking lot, you're not exactly dealing with a Mensa crowd.
At least one thing is now crystal clear: I understand fully how Barack Øbama got elected now...
That is all.
Yep.
9 comments:
I'm not so sure about that last part. I've met some people who would easily qualify for Mensa, but who were too busy thinking deep thoughts to remember that milk needs to be put in the refrigerator.
"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you cannot make him think."
She probably paid for it with Obama Money.
There's the other adage that comes to mind is "You can't cheat an honest man". The Nigerian Email scam works so well because the scammer is open about the dealings being shady, this turns people away from asking questions on why this is such a good deal and getting them to think "The less I know, the more I can deny knowing of wrongdoing if questioned", of course the victim thinks they're scamming somebody else, but really they're the mark.
This year while pumping gas I had sumdood pull up in an SUV claiming to have a stereo in the back of his truck he'd sell to me for dirt cheap. Knowing that there were so many ways I could get screwed, and very few ways I could end up ahead, I politely told the guy to fuck-off.
He did, and I was happy to see the back of him.
She knew it was dirty, that's why she waited to open the box. The faster she's outta there the less chance to get caught. And doing the happy dance in a parking lot over a fed ex box might tip people off.
And then she calls fraud when it turns out not be stolen.
That's not even worth a facepalm.
When the guys in the beat-up van pull up next to you at the stop light and offer to sell you cheap beef, they're probably not from the Hilltop in Saugus. Or they might be, just that they haven't been caught yet by Frank.
Either way folks need to know that (a) you get what you pay for, and (b)really, look at what is going on here - the whole picture, including the one you are totally friggin' blind to because you just can't believe that you are getting such a SWEET deal when all your 'idiot' friends are paying way too much for the same thing and you will be KING of your neighborhood when they find out what a SWEET deal YOU got - in the end, you get what you pay for.
The amazing thing is that even if the above were tattooed on a person at birth, far too many people completely ignore such cons...because they really do think that just this once, since they are pretty smart (smarter than the average idiot)...yep, just this once, they wil be the one (THE one) who makes out on such a deal.
Soyou stand there with your uniform & pad, asking: Get a contract? "nope". Anything in writing? "nope" Phone number? "well, he gave me one, but it doesn't go through anymore" What was his name? "I think it was 'Mike" or something like that" And as an officer, you CAN'T say: Let me get this straight - you LET a guy who you don't know except that he 'might be Mike' do this, you don't have an address or phone number for him, and you've got nothing in writing, and now you are complaining because you got ripped off on your (siding/paving/roofing/tires/landscaping/'free' tree removal/plastic surgery)?
Everyone it seems pictures themselves as Henry Gondorff; no one ever thinks that they will be Doyle Lonnegan. The REAL Gondorffs of the world count on the fact that everyone else IS a Lonnegan, and this tale happens over & over again.
From the common sense side, it makes no sense. But it happens every day.
Every damn stinking day.
She should have remembered the old saying: "Don't take any wooden iPads."
I just bought an Android phone, in a parking lot, at night, from a guy I don't know. But I did pay almost market value an I made sure it was functional before I handed over any money.
I'm guessing that this is also something that you arranged *beforehand* as well, as opposed to some random dude just walking up going "Psst, hey buddy, wanna buy an Android?"...
I wonder if they originally planned for this to even work...?
Maybe they had somebody off to the side with a hidden camera waiting to record her expression when she opened the box to find a high-school shop project...?
When she jumped in her car and sped away, they were just so surprised that they didn't even think to stop her, looked at the money in hand and went on a pub-crawl!
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