Carmen Lopez, 14, of Bothell, Washington opened her biggest Christmas present last and was happy when it appeared to be the Beats by Dre headphones she asked her parents for. However her excitement was dashed when she opened the sealed box and discovered the case was filled with four cans of Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light tuna.





Carmen’s father, Steve Lopez, ordered the headphones online during Walmart’s Black Friday sale. Steve spoke to KCPQ Q13 Fox News and said, “This is what I picked up here and it was wrapped in plastic. So I thought they were legit.” But when the family went to a local Walmart store they were offered an upsetting resolution.





Carmen told the station, “Wal-Mart had said they would only give us a refund, at least the store did which didn’t sound right, because I just really want my headphones at this point. Because I was really looking forward to them.” The refund actually wouldn’t even cover the current cost of the headphones at Walmart, since they were discounted when originally purchased. The Lopez’s reached out to the Walmart corporate office and are waiting to hear back.



To add insult to injury, the Lopez family refrains from eating tuna because their youngest daughter is allergic.





In a fortunate turn of events, Lindsay Merkle, the global account manager of sales for Beats by Dre, caught the Q13 story. She was in the area visiting her family and said, “Last night my father and I were watching the news and saw the unfortunate gift fiasco…So we said, ‘OK, let’s solve this problem today.’”





Lindsay was traveling with some of her company’s new headphones and generously offered to give a pair to Carmen. Arrangements are being made to get the headphones to the teen, and Lindsay has said if she can’t get them to Carmen while she’s in town, her mom will help deliver them. The thoughtful executive said, “I can only imagine what was going through her head. So hopefully this will help her be a little bit happier and get something that she was actually looking forward to on Christmas.”



Video and more info: KCPQ