Lieutenant Tony Ivey, a public information officer at the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office, sent over photos of the fake iPad, which were discolored because they'd already been dusted for finger prints.

"Basically what they'd done is taken a screenshot of an iPad screen turned on, with a copy of a Best Buy sales ticket on front. On the back they'd pasted a cutout of the Apple logo," Ivey said.

Ivey speculates that the men managed to dupe McDowell by showing her a real iPad, then reaching into their car to pull out a FedEx box. He added that a similar incident was reported and resolved last year, when authorities caught a pair of men trying to sell laptop boxes stuffed with a phone book, for the price of a real laptop, of course.

He added that the likely penalty for an incident of fraud like this was 90 days in jail and/or a fine of under $1,000.

Full text of of Incident no. 11081828, filed on Monday night:

"On 08/29/2011 I responded to Lee's Crossing in regards to a swindle call at above address. Ashley Mcdowell stated that she was at Mcdonald's buying food when two black males approached her in the parking lot attempting to sale an IPad or a laptop. Ms. Mcdowell stated that the two black males showed her a new Ipad and stated that they had bought them in bulk and was selling them for $300. Ms. Mcdowell stated that she only had $180 and they agreed to sale it for that price. Ms. Mcdowell stated that the subjects had several of them in a Fed Ex box in the trunk. Ms. Mcdowell stated that when she drove home she opened the box and within the box was a piece of wood

Source