You can have a really cheap iPod – if you don’t mind jail

I hesitate to write about this because I don’t want you all to run out and use what I tell you to get a cheap iPod. Actually, I don’t care if you do, just don’t use my name when the cops bust you. Jonathan Baldino, a 19 year old electrical engineering freshman at the University of Colorado, created a barcode on his home computer, attached it to an iPod in Target and paid $4.99 for a $150 device. Target has low prices, but they sure as heck aren’t that low.

To do this, he downloaded a program called “Barcode Magic” in his dorm room and used it to create barcodes that better suited his budget. The iPod wasn’t his first deeply discounted purchase. He also gave himself a break on a CD player and, in an enjoyable twist for us who are reading about it, the printer which he used to print up his barcodes.

Baldino faces three charges, including a Class 5 felony. He isn’t the first to get caught at this, though. Among others, a man got busted earlier in November for discounting $200,000 worth of Lego, his name was Zack.