What do phone chargers, filament for 3D printers, lamps and sex toys have in common?
Each item is part of the latest mystery sweeping the nation.
For the past couple of months at least 15 Universities, including Concordia and Bishop's in Quebec, have been receiving unexplained packages from Amazon.
"We received one thing, then a couple of days later, we received two, and it being before Christmas we thought maybe someone is doing a 12 Days of Christmas prank on us, but then it became obvious that wasn't the situation. Since then we've gotten over 50 by now,” Erin Mallory, GM administration students’ representative council at Bishop’s told CTV News.
They come seemingly at random, from anonymous senders, sometimes from China and are mostly paid for with gift cards.
“We have been receiving a lot of sex toys. That has been something that has been quite reoccurring,” Tristan Gaudet, president of the Universite de Moncton Student Federation said.
“I would say we have received 60 items,” said Dalhousie Student Union President Amina Abawajy. “They’ve kind of become a bit normalized. We’re like, ‘Oh, another week another package.’”
Not sure of what was going on one university called the RCMP, which has now launched an investigation into the packages.
As has Amazon.
“We are investigating inquiries from consumers who have received unsolicited packages as this would violate our policies. We have confirmed the sellers involved did not receive names or shipping addresses from Amazon" the company said in a statement.
So far the biggest problem the packages have caused is leaving the student unions wondering what to do with all this free stuff. Some are thinking up fundraisers, others are just giving the items away while at Bishop's the student association has been keeping the items for their pub quiz night.
“We’re just going to keep enjoying receiving these packages,” said Victoria’s Camosun College student services co-ordinator Michael Glover. “We’re all very excited. We’re like, ‘What do we get today? Oh my God?’ It’s hilarious.”