It was a disappointing discovery on Christmas morning, when one woman from Mission Beach, CA opened the iPod she received for Christmas and found erasers and index cards in the Apple box.
Jim Nevarde told CBS News 8 he purchased what he thought was a new iPod for his wife, Vicki, at his local Target.
She discovered the box was filled with school supplies.
Mrs. Nevarde says the colorful erasers fit in the box perfectly, but the index cards had to be specially cut to fill the void where the wires were supposed to be.
When the couple went back to the a different Target to explain what had happened, Target employees helped them get another iPod.
That one was also filled with index cards cut perfectly to fit the spot where the iPod should have been.
"That's when they said 'we have an issue here,"Nevarde told CBS 8 News.
Jim says Target officials told him they suspect a distributor is making the swap somewhere between the Apple factory and the store. The shrink wrap was on both boxes at the time of purchase.
An official statement issued by Target to CBS 8 said,
At Target, we are committed to providing our guests with an outstanding shopping experience. We take this incident very seriously and worked directly with the guest to resolve the issue and make it right. We are looking into this incident and have no additional information to share.
So far, this is the only report of the iPod/school supply swap that has been made.
You can watch the full report from CBS 8 News here.