While it's true that soon we could start seeing smart-appliances in the home such as refrigerators, toasters and ovens with Internet-accessible screens for recipes and recipe tips, that's not exactly what police in San Leandro, Calif., found last week.
In this case, the HD panel was the oven. The oven door to be exact, and nothing more. And yes, this could probably only happen in California.
On Aug 5, police stopped a motorist who had allegedly just left a Wal-Mart parking lot where he tried selling a "37-inch flat-screen TV" for a mere $100. And it was a Sony, no less. A bargain, indeed. Especially in a recession.
But when a police officer pulled out the apparent HD television boxing material (which included a Best Buy sticker, a price tag for nearly $2,000, and some odds-and-ends cable wires), what he found instead was an oven door disguised to look like an HD television set, according to the Oakland Tribune.
The police had been alerted to the ruse by a suspicious would-be "customer" in the parking lot after he said the suspect was trying to hawk his "HD set" out of his beige 1980 Olds Cutlass. (The witness said the seller told him he had bought the HDTV for $60 at a flea market, but was willing to give it up for $100.)
While the suspect was charged with driving with an expired license, apparently he was not charged with selling false merchandise. After the incident, one of the officers said that in today's economy people are looking to save money, "But if you think you're getting something for nothing, you're probably getting nothing for something."
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