There’s one important rule that can save you from a number of scams: when a stranger walks up to you in a parking lot and offers to sell you something, say no. Always say no. If a woman in California had obeyed this rule, she’d still have $80 in her pocket and no pieces of tile masquerading as iPads.

She told her story to local news hoping to warn others away from the same scam. She says that a well-dressed man driving an SUV came up to her in a Winco grocery store parking lot and offered to sell her an iPad mini 3 for $200, which is $150 below the starting list price for that model. She haggled the price down to $80, and probably felt like she was getting a great deal.

Well, until she opened up the box and found a bubble-wrapped piece of tile in place of an iPad. She decided to speak out to local media, even though she felt stupid, because the man’s vehicle was packed with other electronics. “He had TV, other iPads and Xbox Ones and also phone boxes,” she told Victor Valley News. That’s a lot of potential victims. Be careful out there, everyone, and stay away from the Some Dude In A Parking Lot electronics store.

Woman Buys Fake Ipad Outside Winco in Victorville [Victor Valley News]

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