So remember yesterday when we rattled off some possible methods of acquiring a boxed copy of Panther prior to its official release this Friday at 8 PM? Well, in addition to bribing, blackmailing, threatening, physically assaulting, hypnotizing, drugging, killing and then replacing with a lifelike android, or proposing marriage to a reseller who already has a shipment in the back, it turns out there was an easier way: preorder the thing and then just be one seriously lucky English son-of-a-gun. Who knew?

Yes, MacNN reports that a U.K. Apple customer named Ben Stanley actually received his preordered copy last night. Three days early, out of the blue, just like that-- for no particular reason whatsoever. Suppose Steve's vendetta against the British has wound to a close? Ben had even posted a series of photos of the packaging just to prove his luck to the world, but Apple has since asked him to remove the pix until Panther is officially released. (You can still look at two pictures of his cat, though. And at broadcast time, this box photo still hadn't been removed from his .Mac account.)

Ben, it's worth pointing out, apparently leads one ridiculously charmed life, since his .Mac web pages indicate that not only did he get his copy of Panther three days ahead of everyone else, but he also owns an obscene number of LCD computer displays (including three Apple Studio Displays of various generations all on one desk), a Smart car, and a freakin' Segway. Since what goes around comes around, all of that strongly implies that the guy spent a previous life feeding starving babies in third-world countries while simultaneously advancing the search for a cure for cancer and fending off alien invaders bent on the destruction of the earth.

As for our karma, well, our Apple Store preorder still just says "Open," indicating that our shot of greeting Panther at the door any sooner than Friday evening is slim at best. Indeed, at this point it's even possible that we'll get our order late, which would suggest that we apparently spent our last lives on this planet tying bacon to small children and giggling as we watched them run shrieking from vicious dogs. But hey, we can live with that-- as long as that order gets here by Monday, that is. Any later and we'll have to hire a psychic to find where the bodies are buried.