Wal-Mart sells N.J. woman phony iPad

Buyer beware: All that glitters is not the original shrink wrap.

This morning’s “Bamboozled” column in the Star-Ledger detailed the trouble a New Jersey woman went through to replace a fake iPad she was erroneously sold at a Wal-Mart in Cedar Knolls.

The sealed and shrink-wrapped box Jamie Frick brought home turned out to contain a scratched-up display model and not a working device. Apparently she had just bought a fake that another dishonest customer had previously returned, and which subsequently found its way onto the shelf.

She says Wal-Mart initially refused to give her a cash refund and insinuated that the item she returning was not the one she was seen purchasing in the surveillance video. She filed a police report and took the case to small-claims court — shortly before the megastore called to apologize and offer her a full refund, plus a gift card, plus money to cover her legal fees.