How dumb can you get?

[Kogarashi]

Man Accused of Switching Water Bottle UPC with $500 TV

To sum up: a man is facing potential jail time for switching UPCs at a Wal-Mart. What's suprising (and highly stupid) is that he switched a $500 TV's UPC for that of a $3 water bottle. So he's trying to buy a $500+ TV for $3. Of course someone's going to notice that!

Reminded me of the occasional code-switcher I faced while cashiering. Worst was someone who'd dropped a cheaper UPC into a bag for a quilt set. When I realized the quilt set was ringing up as "Paper Asst." I looked, reached in, and pulled out the loose code with a simple, "Oh, looks like some prankish customer put the wrong UPC code in here," to deflect the customer's complaint that I was accusing them specifically of stealing. The ensuing catbutt face was usually the giveaway.

And of course there was Price Sticker-Switch Lady, who only switched price stickers from clearance items but couldn't be bothered to do it properly (sometimes the clearance sticker was more expensive than the regular price sticker). She didn't get far either.

Anyone else run into these nutjobs?

[Evil Queen]

My brain! It hurts! Gah!!!!

[Becks]

And of course there was Price Sticker-Switch Lady, who only switched price stickers from clearance items but couldn't be bothered to do it properly (sometimes the clearance sticker was more expensive than the regular price sticker).

In its own way, this is even worse than the first story mentioned.

[Kogarashi]

In its own way, this is even worse than the first story mentioned.

She also had absolute piles of price stickers on each item, more than half of which were visibly peeling off because they'd been removed and re-stuck. Only a complete cashier novice (with no shopping experience whatsoever) would've thought they belonged there in the first place. I had the extra benefit of salesfloor training, which included applying those price stickers in the first place, so I recognized shoddy workmanship.

However, this particular lady was more conniving, in that she would seek out new cashiers and give rather plausible-sounding excuses, including dropping particular CSMs' names to give her story credence.

[rerant]

When I worked at Wal Mart some employees were printing labels for dollar items and having other employees who were in on the scam use the labels in place of scanning high priced items like Playstations and games, clothes, other electronics, etc.
Eventually they were caught when one of the managers spied the total of a bill and knew it couldn't possibly be right and asked to see the employee's receipt.

Nine people were fired on the spot that day, and I think the only one who was charged was the one who was caught that day because it was the only instance the store could prove.
The others admitted to being in on it but never admitted to buying anything.

I was asked many times to aid these fools in their scam and I never obliged. I even went so far as to break up with someone I was dating at the store who was in on the scam because of it.

[edible_hat]

There was a guy around here who was caught when a $700 coffee maker rang up as a $30 popcorn maker. He claims he only did it to feed his family, but he had half a dozen plasma TVs in his caravan. How many TVs can one family eat?

[BarbieGirl]

I had a lady take a tag from a $10 wagner hand pump paint sprayer and put it on an ingersol rand $60ish electric sprayer. She used tape from the store, and left the tape arrows on it that show where the tape starts. She also left all of the product that she had taken the tag from and the tape and other assorted items in a shopping cart that she brought to the return desk with her.....

[Kogarashi]

Wow, BarbieGirl, that customer is certainly up there on the Dumb Thief ladder.

How do these people think they won't get caught?

[blas]

There was a lady at the grocery store who got caught switching tags on meat. Now, we all know how sticky those stickers are and how the package can leak or break cuz of that...

Yeah...she was putting ground chuck meat tags on steak. What an idiot.

[Princess-Snake]

I once had someone remove the tag from a package of hamburger meat and replace it with the tag for a lousy 12 ounce bottle of Pepsi. He honestly thought he could get away with it and was surprised when we pointed out the wrong tags. Dumbass.

[wolfie]

Saw a sign in the camping department of the local Candian Tire: People taking one propane cylinder out of a 2-pack or a 3-pack will be charged for the 2-pack or 3-pack. Took a closer look at the cylinders, and while each cylinder in the multi-packs had a UPC, the multi-pack UPC was on each cylinder, rather than on the carrier that held them together. Of course, someone taking a cylinder out of a multi-pack would get it scanned as the multi-pack, and automatically charged for the multi-pack.

I prefer to think of this as an automatically-imposed idiot tax.

[Kogarashi]

- Multi-pack UPCs on each individual item in pack -

I prefer to think of this as an automatically-imposed idiot tax.

Same goes for several of the Coke/Pepsi brand six-packs of 20-oz. bottles. I had a few customers bring up just one from those six-packs. Some had legitimately pulled those bottles from the individual drink coolers and were caught off-guard, whether because some other customer was stupid and put the bottle in the drink cooler when it wouldn't scan as an individual, or because some employee was stupid and decided to restock the coolers with bottles pulled from the six-packs. Other customers were just plain dumb, trying to buy just one from the six-pack instead of the whole thing.

Kind of like the customers who mix-and-match IBC or Jones Soda bottles from their cardboard six-packs.

[Apathy]

There was a guy around here who was caught when a $700 coffee maker rang up as a $30 popcorn maker. He claims he only did it to feed his family, but he had half a dozen plasma TVs in his caravan. How many TVs can one family eat?

Because he needs to feed his family coffee? And some families eat TVs like there's no tomorrow.

[PepperElf]

yeah. $700 coffee makers taste good ya know.
unless he was trying to fence it for the cash

but seriously if you want to steal to feed a family i would think that food would be more edible...