This is about my friend Matteo. He ordered a few months ago an iMac on the Internet. On eBay. Everyone knows that a 24" iMac for 500 euros is suspicius. And it is even more suspicius if the seller asks you to pay via Western Union.
But Matteo is a bit naive and always trusts everybody.



So we have Matteo paying the 500 euros and waiting for his iMac to arrive. And waiting. And waiting.
One day he phoned me and told me the story. He worked during the summer in order to change his old PC.
He even told me that the seller - whose name was Simon Cooper - was in London and Matteo's brother was going to london in a few days and he was going to investigate on this misterius Simon Cooper. It goes without saying that Matteo's brother didn't find anything.



This was not right. So I decided to act!

First I needed an iMac: I searched the internet and found a GREAT bargain for a 17". No. It was not on eBay and a few days later it was mine.

Second I didn't want matteo to know it was from me. It had to look as if Simon Cooper really existed! But how?
I couldn't ask a shipment company to put Simon Cooper as the sender and anyway the box would result shipped from Milan, not London.
My father - in his company - uses FedEx for sending boxes. And he still had some blank FedEx shipping receipts.
Cool. Now I could bring the box to Matteo house but everyone in his family would recognize me! I needed someone that was not me. Again, what about my father?

And after a nice FedEx hat and some sportive outfit...voila, a perfect FedEx employee!



The mission was for a saturday morning. That day it was already 4 Matteo was waiting for his iMac. We got up early and left for Matteo's house which is in Modena, 3 hours of car from Milan.
We found the house and then my father went into action...

I looked from the car which was out of sight. My father arrived outside of the house and rang. Matteo's sister came out.
"FedEx"
"What is it?"
"It's a computer"
"MATTEO!!! COME HERE!"
and then the WHOLE family came outside the house...everyone was still waiting and hoping for the iMac to arrive.
"But why did it take so long????"
"It was blocked at the customhouse"
"IT WAS BLOCKED AT THE CUSTOMHOUSE!!" screamed matteo's sister.

Later I came to know that the whole story had become a family issue and my father told me they all were about to cry for happiness!

And after a few signs the mission was complete and me and my father came back happy to Milan.
That same day Matteo called me "YOU CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!" "what?" "SIMON COOPER EXISTS! GOD EXISTS!!"
And I said right. But. Do not EVER THINK again to buy something on eBay!!


"...anyway Simon Copper is a son of a bitch...I ordered a 24" iMac and he sent me a 17"!!"