Every holiday season, some prankster thinks he can get away with putting rocks in a box and passing it off as an iPod or something. This year, the consumer reports section of the local news takes an even more depressing turn in the formerly bankrupt city of Vallejo, where local scammers attempted to sell picture frames wrapped in duct tape as the hot holiday gift item.

Police told KTVU they found a stash of fake iPad boxes when they made a routine traffic stop at a Vallejo shopping center. In the boxes, police found "picture frames with duct tape on the back to duplicate the silver backing of an iPad. The frame also had an apple-shaped sticker copying the Apple logo that appears on the back of iPads." Which: if you were duped into thinking duct tape was the same as luxuriously brushed aluminum, we know a fanboy or two who probably doesn't feel too sorry for you.

Anyhow, it's unclear if anyone actually bought the picture frames, which are useless for checking email but probably still good for holding a family portrait. KTVU speculates they were going to be sold at a discount somewhere below Apple's usual premium pricing, obviously.

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[KTVU]