Reddit:

I live about 15 minutes away and once I was home, I slid open the plastic seal, lift the box and immediately had a moment of shock. I’ve purchased many iPhones before so am quite familiar with Apple’s packaging and what not. There was a phone in the box that resembled the size and shape of an actual XS Max and had a decent weight to it. However, I immediately noticed something was wrong.

Grain of salt here. Personally, I’ve never bought an iPhone from an Apple Store and not opened it at the Apple Store.

That said, it could be true. If so, a pretty shocking experience.

UPDATE: Since this was originally posted, the Reddit post on this topic has been deleted.