WALMART has been the target of sneaky self-checkout scams which have cost the retailer thousands of dollars.
The retailer has resorted to arresting and banning those who have tried these self-checkout tricks.
In April, a middle school principal was charged with petit theft after trying to dupe Walmart employees at the self-checkout.
Gregory Lewis allegedly stole items after learning about a sneaky “skip-scanning” trick, as reported by NBC affiliate WFLA.
After learning about the trick from his friends, Lewis said he wanted to see if he could get away with it too.
All he had to do was pretend to scan big purchases but instead only scan and pay for a couple of cheaper items.
The principal supposedly stole a significant amount of light bulbs, bacon, and frozen butterfly shrimp and was subsequently apprehended by the Winter Haven Police Department in Florida.
The items he stole totaled $37.45.
Another man upped the stakes by trying to get away with stealing over $20,000 in merchandise.
Speedy Gonzalez would have gotten away with the trick if he hadn’t been caught on security camera footage, as reported by Fox affiliate WAGA.
The police confirmed he stole over 20 items by cramming a large empty container, like a trash can or mailbox, with expensive smaller items.
But on the checkout line, he would only scan the large container and walk out with an entire bounty.
Gonzalez would regularly visit stores in North Georgia, but law enforcement has connected him to offenses in Hall, Barrow, Gwinnett, Habersham, White, and Lumpkin counties.
To combat retail theft, Walmart has implemented new savvy technology to make sure consumers are scanning each item at the self-checkout lines.
The technology looks at a customer’s hands as they scan items to determine if something is missing.
In recent times, the retailer has also limited the number of self-checkout items a shopper is allowed to bring on the line.
Walmart shoplifting arrests
- Ashley Cross was caught on security cameras using an old watch battery barcode to scan expensive products for just $1
- Ex-officer Mark Leenerts stole $317.88 worth of merchandise from Walmart stores in Topeka, Kansas
- Jeremiah Boyer raked in $52,800 in fees on 874 orders while working for Walmart’s online delivery service Spark
- Brent Adam Brooks, of Sylva, North Carolina, was arrested after trying to steal a $198 Frigidaire ice maker
- Kabreshia Caldwell targeted innocent senior citizen customers at Walmart stores across Northeast Florida, stealing a total of $10,000
- Katherine Gordon allegedly stole $80 worth of groceries by replacing barcodes on certain produce items
In one instance, Walmart banned one shopper from all of its retail stores in the United States after he was caught using a sick trick to steal.
The shopper, Brent Adam Brooks, was arrested after trying to steal a Frigidaire ice maker which cost nearly $200.
The man tried to get away with paying nothing for the machine.
Brooks faced a felony charge for taking off and interfering with the anti-theft mechanism affixed to the ice maker, according to The Mountaineer.
Another customer was also banned from stepping foot in any Walmart store in the country after she used an old watch battery barcode to scan expensive products from a Walmart in Tennessee.
By doing so, Ashley Cross tried to get away with purchasing the big-ticket items for just $1.
The retail thief tried stealing jeans, a T-shirt, some boots, and 11 packs of ramen noodles which totaled over $137.34, local CBS affiliate WREG reported.
Walmart did not immediately reply to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
