A California woman suspects she stumbled upon an illegal dark web drug distribution network when she made an innocuous purchase on Amazon and received something far more sinister.
Easy Bay writer Megan Day wanted to order Russian felt sauna hats for herself and a friend, thinking it would be fun to wear the traditional ethnic hats the next time she went to a spa.
But a month later, when her package arrived from Ukraine, she opened it and found a bottle of Vidatox, a Cuban medicine made from the venom of the blue scorpion and used to treat cancer.
The story begins… Californian writer Megan Day tells the story of how she bought a felt sauna hat and became famous thanks to it.
Quite innocently: she thought she was buying one of those hats you wear in a sauna to keep your head cool. The hat has “Oligarch” written on it in Ukrainian.
Wait a minute! When Megan received the package, she was surprised because inside was a bottle of Vidatox (a Cuban drug 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, and the United States has a trade embargo against Cuba prohibiting imports from Cuba.
“I have a story for you,” Megan tweeted on January 25. “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, it is customary to wear a felt or woolen hat while visiting the sauna. These hats protect the head from the heat, thereby preventing the body from overheating at high temperatures.
“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 was accompanied by a photo of a package covered in stamps containing Vidatox.
The drug is made from the venom of the Cuban scorpion, also called the blue scorpion.
Well, maybe… She wondered on Twitter whether sauna hats are actually fake products that drug addicts are being offered to buy as a token of their drug use.
Funnily enough, Megan also joked that her wool sauna hat could be another decoy 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 same day Megan received the package, she also saw a video on Facebook about scorpion venom.
Although the drug is exported to cancer groups 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 finish in style and now I’m the owner of illegal Venom,” Megan joked, adding that she was so confused and surprised by the drug delivery that she “lost my mind.”
wonderful! It looks like she also got a really good deal on Cuban drugs that were much more expensive than the hats she actually ordered.
Not a cover? The man said he ordered the same hat online and instead of medicine he received a hat.
After thinking some more about this truly bizarre mix-up, Megan came up with an idea to explain how her fedora 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 has deliberately chosen a weird niche product that no one will buy by mistake. Except me, of course.”
She added: “I’m probably the only one who actually needs this bait.”
It’s unclear if this is the case, as another Twitter user reported purchasing the same hat from the same seller without any issues.
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 box of flour
MORE STORIES: This woman ordered underwear and received a duck hunting hat instead She thought the person who ordered the duck hunting hat had 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 some very strange delivery mix-ups, including one where a woman thought she was buying a hair ring for women 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.
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