Basically a friend of mine went to a shop to buy a clothing rack and when checking out and taking the item home it turned out that they put the wrong item in the bag and he ended up with a brand new imac. no idea how the person was stupid enough to make this mistake but he wanted to know if there was any legal obligations to return it, or could he just keep the imac, and if so would the warranty etc still be valid for it.
Thanks

Ethically I think he should return it, and if the store figures out who took they might go after him. There would be no warranty, as he has no receipt, and if he attempted to get warranty work done the manufacturer my have the serial number marked as stolen.

So 'basically a friend of yours' is wondering about the legal and ethical issues over him having possession of an imac which someone else purchased... no matter how it all came about there is someone out there who paid for an imac and your friend is in possession of same imac. Anyone having to work out the moral or legal issues of that situation needs to step back and consider their own sense of moral responsibility.

Whoever paid for that imac, has no proof (no receipt) of purchase - they could have saved a long time for the item, it could have been a gift for someone etc so do you honestly think keeping the item will be hurting no-one?