Uh huh.
I won’t defend this in any way. Sorry to disappoint you.
Surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre you wouldn’t. You’re just peeved that Fear Itself pre-empted your defense… 
Hunh. Funny thing is, I pointed out the possibility of this scam to my wife this Christmas. If stores don’t track their returns closely enough, they open themselves up to exactly this sort of chichanery. It woul dbe near costless to be more careful about this, and yet most stores (especially clothing stores) don’t seem to bother. It’s irritating.
Of course, in my version of the scam, I include having the brains to switch the tags from the purchased merchandise onto the “returned” merchandise to avoid being caught.