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The original was posted on /r/talesfromretail by /u/wakeangel2001 on 2024-04-07 16:30:29.

I used to work at a very famous toystore, and we always had an X-Box One demo set up in the video game section. Keep in mind, a demo is NOT a real console, it is a small computer with some sample software installed on it, covered in a plastic shell to LOOK like the console. The controllers likewise were also not real, they were directly wired into the demo unit with thick gauge spring wires (think that spirally wire that old phones used before they went wireless, but much thicker.) The controllers had nowhere to put a battery, had no wireless transmitters, and even IF you could dismantle the display enough to get their wires out of the unit properly they weren’t compatible with any ports on an actual console. This did not stop people from stealing them by CUTTING through the wires within a few days of them being set up at most. Remember, cutting those wires means the controller will never work again, and wouldn’t have been compatible with a real console anyway. You wouldn’t even be able to sell them because anyone who works at a game store would instantly notice the stump of the wire sticking out the top of the controller, and the lack of a battery slot would be pretty obvious too.

Basically, thieves would go through the effort of bringing wire cutters into a toy store and going through the effort of discreetly vandalizing a game demo for the reward of having a paperweight shaped like an X-Box One controller.