Long ago, there was a time when people actually gave each other rocks as gifts; these rocks were welcomed and enjoyed by the recipients (why? We can't say. It was the '70s) and, as quickly as the trend started, it was gone. Gone, that is, everywhere but two Target stores in Fort Worth and Grand Prairie, TX, where the lithogift appears to be alive and well.

The Star-Telegram reports that mother and daughter Melanie and Regan Ritter had an eerie experience of deja vu while shopping for Regan's 14th birthday present, a shiny new iPod(note to self: begin collecting empty bottles and green stamps for children's future gifts). After finding the iPod in stock at a Fort Worth Target store, Melanie bought it and delivered it on her daughter's birthday, and Regan opened the lovely shrink-wrapped "Designed by Apple in California" box to reveal... rocks. A collection of rocks, in fact, matching the approximate weight of the missing iPod. I believe the word you're looking for is "buzzkill."

Mom Ritter did what any caring mother would do: marched back to Target and demanded a refund (no luck, she paid with a Target Card so store credit was all they would do) and subsequently went on a hunt for a new iPod for her little girl, preferably a rock-free model. The nearest Target with stock was in Grand Prairie, 20 miles east as the crow flies, so off she went. This time, she insisted that she be able to open the iPod box prior to purchase; the Target salesfolk said nope, she would have to buy it first. She purchased the iPod, then in full view of the Target staff, opened the box and found -- you guessed it -- more rocks.

Target says it's investigating the incidents. Meanwhile, the Ritters ended up having to use their $350 Target store credit for more mundane, and rock-free, merchandise.

[Picture is of the i-Stones iPod docks, not the actual rocks that were found in the box.]

via MacNN

The NY Daily News is a sober organ, not given to rank hyperbole or overstatement like that other NYC tabloid pictured here, with my all-time favorite headline. (I'm kidding -- the News still has its moments, even if the Post is by far the nuttier paper.) That said, it's troubling to find a note of hysteria in two stories today about the violent side of iPod ownership.

New York City was the scene of the tragic 2005 murder of a Brooklyn teenager in an iPod robbery, but since then the NYPD and transit officials have begun to crack down on iPod theft and it seemed that matters were improving. Not so, says the News. "New FBI stats indicate the teenage obsession with [iPods] has triggered a jump in robberies, including some resulting in murder," reads the story, headlined "Apple's iPod blamed for nationwide crime rise." That's not incendiary at all!