Oh I can easily see this happening. Even if it were company policy to check items like Macbooks carefully, there is no incentive for the employee to be thorough, or even do checks at all.

I mean, what incentive do you have as a warehouse worker to check each item properly, even if policy says you should? Am I getting paid for that, or for getting the pile of packages to be smaller? Is my porductivity going to get measured in me being able to check a Macbook over for 30 minutes, or in the pile of other shit I didn't do in that time? And even if I am supposed to be checking each high-value item, am I being double-checked? Will I be in trouble if the thing I said is good to sell actually isn't?

So don't bother. Just say it's broken, save yourself some time to check the other 129.999 items that came in this week. Not like my boss will be likely to double check me in this scenario. The way they pay warehouse workers is not condusive to them going the extra mile.

I expect the only check that happens is if the customer actually sent the item back or not. Just open the package and check if the thing is really in there, then put it away.

I also dearly hope whoever is in charge of disposal steals a shit ton of stuff, bribing whoever is supposed to keep an eye out to look the other way.