Sometimes things are not what they seem when you shop online: a dress may arrive at your door in a color you weren’t expecting, or perhaps in a size that’s too big.
But when Neta Murphy ordered a croissant lamp as a gift for her sister on affordable Chinese shopping site Temu, she was stumped by what she discovered.
After returning home from work on a particularly hot day, Neta entered her room and found ants crawling all over the lamp.
‘Why the fuck would ants want a fake croissant?’ Neta questioned in her viral TikTok video, which has since racked up 1.3 million views.
She explained: “The ants were getting into the hole, so I just made a bigger hole.”
Neta Murphy ordered a croissant lamp as a gift for her sister from affordable Chinese shopping site Temu.
The young woman opened the lamp to reveal the inside falling away and covering it with crumbs as if it were a real croissant.
To test her hypothesis that the lamp was actually a cake covered in resin, Neta decided to test it.
“I guess there’s a way to really know,” Neta announced before biting into a piece of the lamp.
The verdict? “It’s literally shit food,” he exclaimed.
Viewers were stunned by Neta’s edible discovery, with some demanding Temu explain himself.
One viewer commented: ‘NO HE DIDN’T JUST PUSH A LIGHT INSIDE A CROISSANT AND THEN COVER IT WITH RESIN. CAN’T.’
While another jokingly said: “I have to check out the cat lamp Temu gave me.” A third added: “Did Temu just eat the croissant lamp?”
But one TikTok user had an explanation for Temu selling a resin-covered croissant as a lamp.
Some TikTok users expressed surprise at the fact that the lamp was made from a real croissant, while others joked about ordering from Temu.
“I think it’s a real croissant because it’s supposed to be a copy of the Yukiko Morita lamp,” the user said. ‘Use real bread and pastries, like croissants. The bread is hollowed out but preserved with an anti-fungal coating.’
Japanese artist and former baker Yukiko Morita was shocked by the amount of unsold bread going to waste and began coating leftover loaves with resin to make lamps.
She eventually opened her business Pampshade to sell her custom artwork online; a modern croissant lamp made by Yukiko Morita sells for £92. The croissant lamp sold by Temu costs just £8.99.
This isn’t the first time a shopper has made a discouraging discovery when opening their Temu order.
Kelly Kaye, from New Zealand, bought nautical-themed tiebacks for her curtains, but was horrified when her order of Temu “turned up reeking of seafood.”
Opening what he thought was a decorative plastic starfish, Kelly realized he was handling the sea creature’s rotting corpse.
Kelly Kaye opened the ties on her nautical-themed curtains and was hit by the ‘stinks of seafood’
One user commented: “TEMU is going crazy with this,” to which Kelly replied: “The wild is right.” A croissant is one thing, but a real starfish…’
Braving the stench, Kelly filmed the real starfish’s patterned interior and took to TikTok to warn others not to order from Temu. The disgusting clip has been viewed by more than 9.8 million people.
One user wrote: ‘I don’t know what you were expecting. It’s Temu!’
But another argued that Kelly should have expected to receive a real starfish, saying: ‘Why did you think it was fake? Dried starfish exist. In my coastal country they sell dried starfish all the time.
A third user commented: “Temu, go crazy with this,” to which Kelly replied: “The wild is right.” A croissant is one thing, but a real starfish…’
MailOnline has approached Temu for comment.