A California woman suspects she stumbled upon an illegal dark web drug network after making an innocuous purchase on Amazon and receiving something far more sinister instead.
Easy Bay writer Megan Day wants to order Russian felt sauna hats for herself and her friends, thinking it would be fun to wear the traditional ethnic hats next time she goes to a spa.
But when her package arrived from Ukraine a month later, she opened it and found a bottle of Vidatox, a Cuban drug made from the venom of the blue scorpion and used to treat cancer.
The story begins… Californian writer Megan Day went viral after sharing a story about buying a felt sauna hat.
Quite innocently: she thought she was buying the kind of hat you wear to keep your head cool in a sauna. The hat has the word “oligarch” written on it in Ukrainian.
Wait a minute! When Megan received the package, she was surprised to find inside a bottle of Vidatox, a Cuban medicine made from the venom of the blue scorpion.
Law and Order: Because Vidatox is manufactured in Cuba, it cannot be legally purchased in the United States, which has a trade embargo against Cuba that prohibits imports from that country.
On January 25, Megan tweeted: “I have a story for you. I tried to order felt sauna hats with the word ‘Oligarch’ printed on them from an Amazon seller called RussianBear for myself and my sauna-loving friends as a joke (even though I really wanted one).”
In Russian and Ukrainian baths, people often wear felt or wool hats while visiting the sauna. These hats protect the head from overheating, so that the body does not overheat when sitting in hot weather.
“A month later,” she continued, “I received a package from Ukraine that contained nothing but a banned Cuban cancer drug made from blue scorpion venom. That’s it. That’s my story.”
The tweet also included a photo of a package covered in stamps containing Vidatox.
The drug is made from the venom of the Junceus Rhopalurus scorpion, also known as the blue scorpion, which is native to Cuba.
Well, maybe… She wondered on Twitter whether the sauna hat was actually a fake product that drug addicts were being offered to buy as a token of their drug use.
Funny: Megan also joked that her wool sauna hat could be another bait product.
Low risk: She believed the hat was so niche that drug dealers could use it as a front, figuring no one would want to buy it unless they knew it was a front for drugs.
The plot gets more and more confusing! Coincidentally, the day Megan received the package, she also saw a video about scorpion venom on Facebook.
Although the drug is exported to treat cancer patients around the world, it is not used at all in the United States because the United States currently has a trade embargo on Cuba that prohibits the import of any drugs from that country.
Megan’s two-tweet story has sparked a storm of emotion among readers, who have given it thousands of likes.
“I just wanted to have a good time and now I’m the owner of an illegal Venom,” Megan joked, adding that she was so confused and surprised by Venom’s appearance that she “lost control.”
Wonderful! It looks like she also got a good deal on Cuban drugs, which cost far more than the hats she ordered.
Not a cover? This person said they ordered the same hat online and actually received the hat instead of the medicine.
After thinking some more about this truly bizarre mix-up, Megan came up with an idea to explain how her felt hat had been replaced with something so unexpected.
“Theory: Somewhere on the dark web, there are instructions on how to buy these oligarch fedoras on Amazon to get illegal scorpion pills,” she suggested. “The seller deliberately chose a weird niche product that no one would automatically order by mistake. Except me, of course.”
She added: “It’s quite possible that I’m the only one who actually needs this bait.”
It’s unclear if this is actually the case, as another Twitter user reported purchasing the same hat from the same seller without any problems.
The drug has been used for more than 25 years and is believed to reduce the number of cancer cells, but it is not legally available in the United States.
Another weird thing is that this woman felt the same way, saying she once wanted to buy a lei but ended up buying a sex toy.
Switched: Another Twitter user was shocked to receive a fake Rolex watch in the mail instead of a container of flour
MORE STORIES: This woman ordered underwear and received a duck hunting hat She imagined that the person who ordered the duck hunting hat mistakenly received her panties.
“Also: Scorpion venom is apparently very valuable, so if you have any ideas on how to exploit this situation legally, please let me know, thanks.”
Hundreds of other commenters weighed in on the story, expressing admiration and curiosity and giving Meghan some advice on how to find a legitimate sauna hat seller.
Some shared their own stories of very strange delivery mix-ups, including one where a woman thought she was buying a headband for a girl but ended up receiving what looked like an anal sex toy.
Others recalled buying containers of flour and sugar on eBay in 2005 and ending up with a rubber ducky watch containing a fake Rolex.
The views expressed above are those of users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.