Dana bought a fake Christmas tree at Target and realized a UPS label bearing another woman’s address was still on the box.

She writes:

Late last night, I bought a blue 4′ fake Christmas tree from a Target in Los Angeles. This is what happens when you run out to Target late on Sunday night: you come home with a bright blue Christmas tree. I think it’s awesome. Anyway, it seemed like a steal at almost 50% off, even though it had been opened and was an online return. They had about six of them, all with online return stickers on them. I thought it was strange that they had more than one, but ultimately decided it wasn’t that big of a deal and bought one.

While I was assembling the tree, my fiance noticed that there was a UPS label on the side of the box with a woman’s address on it (picture attached to this email). Both of us were taken aback that they wouldn’t cover up the original purchaser’s personal information before putting them back out on the floor to be sold. I’m hardly surprised, given the volume of merchandise they deal with and their generally relaxed attitude towards consumer affairs, that they didn’t do anything about it. Still, it came as sort of a shock and I wanted to make people aware that if they make a return, they should take the necessary steps to make sure their address isn’t left on the box, because Target sure as shit isn’t going to do anything about it.

Since the person who had originally purchased the tree doesn’t work far from my office, we briefly considered assembling the tree and delivering it back to her at Paramount Studios (thanks Google Maps!), but ultimately decided that we liked it too much to give it up; however, I might friend her on Facebook and send her pictures of us having fun with the little blue Christmas tree she didn’t want. Target has delivered delicious practical jokes as an early Christmas present. Joy!

So unless you want people with Dana’s sense of humor getting a hold of your address, be sure to remove any identifying marks from merchandise you give up.

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