Woman buys valuable piece of outsider art resembling iPad for $180

The spectacularly shrewd Ashley McDowell was approached by two men in a McDonald's parking lot where they offered to sell her an iPad fetish for $300. She only had $180, but they gave it to her anyway. When she got home, she confirmed that it was really just a block of wood with an Apple logo painted on the back.

Woman Buys a Block of Wood with an Apple Logo

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

better still than a block of electronics with an Apple logo on the back
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

Protip: when buying electronics from a shady guy in a parking lot, you might want to inspect it first.
http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

That’s the most clever article reframing I’ve seen since the last time I visited Drudge.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716267120 Charlene McBride

the fingerprint powder gives it an interesting quality. i bet she could make her $$ back selling it on ebay (as art, not as an iPad)
Antinous / Moderator

You missed the best part.

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.”
- Brainspore
  
  I’m not sure I’d trust her judgment on that. For all we know it was just a couple of shopping carts taped together and painted to look like an Impala.
  - http://www.facebook.com/RhiLx Rhiannon RhingaLinge Linge-Bro
    
    love this comment! loled!
http://twitter.com/ManekiNico Maneki Nico

If this Boing Boing thing doesn’t work out, Mark could always get work as a spin doctor.
Guest

Yes, it may sound hard to believe, but my usually savvy cousin fell for the same swindle on a street corner in Buffalo, 4 years ago, for an iPhone that turned out to be a brick. Although only $300 lighter, he should have known better; his Mom was a *Moegoe* who fell for the Nigerian get-rich, dubious-inheritance trick, twice!
- http://twitter.com/nagmay Gabriel Nagmay
  
  It’s hard for me to pity people who get ripped off when trying to purchase stolen merchandise.
  
  The best example is those “I’m a corrupt dictator trying to smuggle millions out of my country. Can I use your bank account?” nigerian schemes. Feel lucky that you only lost a few thousand.
  
  Just think what position you would be in if it had been real… You just helped a war criminal steal millions. Bravo!
  - Guest
    
    I’m sorry, did you read my post or do you just like dealing in non-sequiturs?
    
    It’s hard for me to feel sorry for people with reading comprehension problems or people who incessantly write in the second person for no apparent reason.
- Lane Yarbrough
  
  Search iCarbon and iCoat, some are wood grain.
Lane Yarbrough

They did not “paint on” the scene, it’s too easy to buy an iPad decal. This is definitely a re-scam…something from Ebay probably….And that’s a Best Buy tag too.
Philipshade

Reminds me of guys selling “new” camcorders on the street in NYC. Get home, un-seal the box and find yourself a nice brick.
Lane Yarbrough

I’m calling it, can’t find the exact image, but HP’s Touchpad ads are the only ones on the market whose ad’s are just like the image on the left.
i_prefer_yeti

That’s a steal at twice the price!
yri

Cargo cult!
DEJJ

Her first clue should have been the logo. It’s clearly too high on the back.
mtdna

It’s still better than a Zune.
Ted Brennan

Didn’t Mark have an article about how to build a DYI iPad in Make Magazine?
〠

Yes, this woman was foolish. The victim blaming in the Gawker article is still sleazy as hell.
- Guest
  
  What else is new? :/
jimb

I don’t buy this. The way it’s told, the scammers relied on their victim not opening the package until it was too late – nobody is going to believe the item shown in that picture is an actual iPad. So then, why would they waste effort putting any graphics on it at all, particularly that Apple logo?

I think the woman who told the reporters (and the police?) this story is the only scammer, trying to get attention.

Edit: Ok I just read the linked article and it does mention this point, although it doesn’t seem to occur to the author that it couldn’t have been the woman making it up, rather than some scammers who were (also) being stupid.
- codesuidae
  
  “why would they waste effort putting any graphics on it at all”
  
  Perhaps in addition to being scammers, they have a trollish sense of humor?
pjcamp

She bought a fetish of a fetish? How meta!
sata blank

This is good, but not as good as this was. http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/
Terranex

Victim blaming? If you are THAT STUPID, you deserve to be blamed.

*ahem* I mean, would you like to see my $3 miniaturised yellow touchscreens? You can only write on them with a pen or pencil, but you can take away the ones you use!
librtee_dot_com

Woulda fooled me.
garyg2

Hopefully she didn’t try IMing her out-of-town boyfriend with it or anything.
Osamabama

I got one of these in much better condition (muh clearer graphics, no scratches) and will reluctantly sell it on for $150. That’s $30 less than the white Impala gang’s price.
stevebr

Still a good deal. It’s smaller, lighter and more powerful than a P-P-P-Powerbook! On the other hand, the battery life is about the same.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SquarePixel BWAFFLEZ

the seller was honest. that’s exactly what a fetish is…