How is it possible iPhone se unboxed has ios 12?

[Amatell4685]

I’m feeling rather paranoid. I unboxed a sealed iPhone se, to find after setting it up (and not recalling any iOS upgrade taking place), the iOS version was iOS 12.

This seems suspicious, because surely it must have been built and boxed with ios11, if it were made in the 5th month of 2018, since iOS 12 was launched in September. Has it been somehow iOS upgraded from the well known, large chain retailer somehow, then reboxed?

Has someone opened and re-sealed my sealed product?

Much appreciated

 

[JPack]

You probably decoded the S/N incorrectly.

If the product was opened and updated, it would have been activated. The warranty date would reflect that.

https://checkcoverage.apple.com/

 

[Minorite]

Any chance that it's refurbished rather than new? Also not sure about recent SE sales by Apple, those could have iOS 12 already.