Woman Orders iPhone 13 Pro Max, Gets Hand Soap Instead And Is Foaming-Mad

Last year, a Colorado couple ordered a $7,000 Sony Alpha 1 camera on Amazon, only to find that the box was empty upon arrival. Whether this happened in the packing facility or en route is unclear, but it seems this theme of theft is recurring after a London mom discovered her iPhone 13 Pro Max was replaced with a $1 bottle of hand soap when she opened the package.

Khaoula Lafhaily, a 32-year-old mom, recently signed a £1,521 (~$2,057) contract and put down £150 (~$202) to get her hands on an iPhone 13 Pro Max. Sky Mobile, with whom she signed the contract mentioned above, subsequently shipped out the phone through the mail as is the standard operating procedure. The phone was originally supposed to arrive in a day by DPD, a UK-based shipping company, but that did not happen.

Lafhaily reports that she and her family “live in a first-floor flat, so have to watch out the window when we get deliveries otherwise, they get delivered to the wrong flat.” On the first day the package was supposed to be delivered, the driver messaged and said he was “stuck in traffic” and would return the following day. Then, while watching out for the package on the next day, they saw the driver hop out, take a photo, and leave, reporting that no one was home to take the package.


On the third day, a different delivery driver returned and contacted Lafhaily’s husband, who received the package that was supposed to contain a phone. Around midday, when Lafhaily woke up, though, they opened the box to find a bottle of hand soap, much to their dismay and shock. All told, there were multiple days where the iPhone could have been swapped out and stolen. A police investigation into the matter is reportedly ongoing.
While there could be some trickery afoot with the woman replacing the phone with soap herself, perhaps these stories could be avoided or reduced with tamper-proof boxes. Amazon or other vendors could implement a special kind of tape or vacuum seal the boxes for more valuable items, which makes it significantly harder, but not entirely impossible, to swap out products. Moreover, it appears that companies need to work on their chain of custody for products as this theft issue seems to be occurring quite often. In any event, feel free to let us know what you think happened to the iPhone in the comments section below.

(Soap Box Image Courtesy of The Sun and Khaoula Lafhaily)