No need for a VPN if you have access to the laptop, you just use that as a proxy. Look at any c2, open source or commercial, and they'll have that as a feature.

Is it?

Lets see, the average monthly income in the states is about $4k. A decent cheap wine bottle is about $10.

Now compare that to Yahoo's income and that $12 store credit they gave him.

A more accurate scenario would be if the neighbours sent him the wine cork.