Man attempts LCD TV theft using water bottle UPC, fails
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Apr 26th 2008 5:48AM
posted Apr 26th 2008 5:48AM
[Via Fark]
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LOL what an idiot
if it took four swipe attempts, a replaced paper spool, and one PA announcement for a store manager to come to register 14, I would say they WERE fooled for some time.
Dude if you can't afford it, steal it! At least this way you'll have less chance of looking like a cnut.
What the hell is a cnut? :p
Keeping it work safe!
HAHA... okay I get it now, Steve... That's actually one of my favourite of names to call someone, as long as it isn't a lady... save for a very few. :D
It's so British, :D.
I believe he was an exceptionally tall and handsome King of England, Denmark, Norway, and some of Sweden, that is, except for his nose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_the_Great
@ happy
You can say that again.
Hey wouldn't it be funny if someone else switched the stickers as a prank and this guy took the fall.
Unless this guy kept insisting that the TV was only $3.16 and that's all he was willing to pay, I have a hard time seeing how they're going to prosecute him. If I show up at the checkout and the clerk starts scanning prices and it seems wrong, and they call over the manager for a look and find the UPC is switched, I sure hope they don't carry me away in cuffs. I'm not saying this guy is not guilty, but based on what is written above, I think this guy is going to walk. Actually, it reminds me of a time at a grocery store when I was buying a six-pack of some fancy italian soda. The price scanned was around a dollar. I pointed out to the cashier that the price scanned was probably only for one bottle, not all six, and that she should try a different bar code. She tried another one and it came up the same. She said not to worry about it but I was worried and asked her to have the manager come over. I try to be honest at all times and didn't want to walk out of their not paying what I should. The manager came over, tried scanning it, and came with the same price. I explained the probably error, that it was only scanning the price of one bottle, not six, but she said not to worry about it. I figured if the manager says it's the right price, even if the you're not convinced, you're safe.
Brett - people like you give me reason to have faith in humanity. Good for you sir. +1
Limeys can't be good looking, it's against their genetic code.
@Steve: yeah, steal it! instead of looking like one, you'll be one! it's a television, not a loaf of bread. stealing tech things for personal profit doesn't make you robin hood or jean valjean, it makes you scum.
E71, limey is a derogotary term for an Englishman. You fail.
@ Brett
Perhaps they caught him on camera?
other-wise, i completely agree with you.
HA! Great Smiths reference there. :D
Good work!
For the un-win!
Otherwise known all loss
Otherwise known as loss
Otherwise known as double post :)
Oooh how about "FTF". For The Fail.
New Internet meme, anyone?
Also... did you know there is a conference called ROFLCon? How classic.
It's not like the 1,378 people around the country who WERE able to get past brain dead cashiers with this old ass move want the publicity.
Don't you mean 1,337 people?
I would not call that a very 1,337 maneuver. ;-)
who pays $3.16 for a bottle of water?
The French? Evian rofl...
I think it was a 'water bottle' (think Nalgene) rather than a 'bottle of water'
Ever notice how Evian, when spelled backwards, is Naive?
That's no coincidence.
I read that in a book about microsoft. Netscape always used it as an example on microsoft...
On a note related to this story, how stupider can America get (not that I'm not American.)
"stupider" eh? You fail.
And on a side-side note, since when is one man in f'ing small-ass-town Kirksville, MO the end-all-be-all depiction of Americans?
BTW, I live near there -- Kansas City, MO. It's trash.
I live in KCMO as well... You and I should try date-rape.
Ever notice Macs spelled backwards is scam?
believe me,the french don't pay three bucks for an evian. its much cheaper in europe.
Is that actually stealing is it? Putting a different sticker on it?
I think it's known as 'deception' and is regarded as a method of stealing.
He could have just witched stickers with a cheaper lcd.
Yes
i think its more along the lines of attempted fraud.
Ask your mother or your pastor.
OMG! Dude at least use something thats around $300. Keep it at the "half price" point. Or not i guess.
i wonk in retail so i know that these boxes have more then one UPC, so unless he was smart enough to cover all of them why didn't the cashier just try and scan a different one. also if the guy had a feeling that what he was attempting to do was going down in the wrong direction he should have pointed one out.
i mean i work not i wonk*
also this kind of stuff happens all the time, usually are smaller ticket items though
You wonk at work?
'R' and 'N' are like… right next to each other!
Actually, the R is directly above the N!
At least it is on my keyboard ;)
I think he was joking. =)
If you work in retail then you should know that not all companies register every UPC on the box in their system. Some are for manufacturer tracking when it ships out of the plant, some are for distributor tracking, etc.
People coming onto Engadget and claiming that they do X or Y and we should listen to them doesn't automatically give them anything in terms of credibility. Statements determine cred....and your statement results in a FAIL in the cred department.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
– John 3:16 (KJV)
The bottle of water was a sign, clearly this guy wasn't a believer. ;)
Your humor escapes me...
Somewhere, a Vicker is laughing. Engadget is not.
Yeah I'm a Biblical Studies major and I have no clue what you're talking about... Are you British? Is it a British thing?
Chapter = 3:16
Price = $3.16
You could not even know how to read and still get that correlation. But, alas, still not humorous. Thanks for playin'!
What does that quote have to do with anything? Are you trying to say if he had faith he'd have pulled it off? This is just completely inapplicable... Did you just want to bring the bible into the conversation? At least pick something relevant like Leviticus 19:11 or the 8th commandment "You shall not steal", granted that's generally accepted to refer to kidnapping not theft of property but still waaay closer.....
Oh, give us your money!
Come on, nobody is that stupid.
Changing the UPC tag with a little cheaper tag may work. This is either fake news, some drug addict out of mind, or just some children were swapping UPC codes around the shop. I think they would need to prove that he changed the bare code or knew about it, to convict him.
Bare? No thanks, I prefer clothes.
I'm not sure which is the bigger crime. Shoplifting an LCD TV or charging $3.16 for a bottle of water.
water bottle vs bottle of water...
The water bottle might have been a one liter and with the economy being bad right now it makes sense
Why must I fail at making comments :(
Did he pay in Cash?
Would have been funny to watch on video.
"Here you are, $3.16 for this LCD Television."
pretty sad if he goes to jail....especially for trying to steal a piece of shit tv...
vireoo whooo ? ? ?lol
"A Kirksville man faces a felony indictment after trying to purchase a LCD television for less than $3 by allegedly replacing its UPC code with that of a water bottle."
"According to documents filed in Adair County Circuit Court, Newman allegedly tried to purchase a 26-inch Viore LCD television from Wal-Mart, claiming the UPC code valued at $3.16 was the proper code the television, which normally sells for more than $517."
Help me here...I'm not so good at math - how exactly is $3.16 less than $3?
Poor guy...7 years in prison or $5000 or a combination of both for 'attempting' to trick clerks for a $517 purchase. Wynona Rider steals $5500 worth of clothes and gets off with the proverbial slap on the wrist...$3700 in fines, $6000 in restitution and some community service.
Ah well, that's what you get for being a really stupid poor criminal.
It's the news... you don't expect them to be accurate or accountable do you?
Remember that bombastic whopper the media spun about "Iraq's WMD"...
It wasn't the media that spun that. It was the government.Goto www.whitehouse.gov and look at their video archive for the appearances by Condolisa Rice and Cheney just before the war. You will see many with them making their WMD case for the war with their sat pictures and the expert intelligence pointing at their mobile convoys and such.
And make sure you search for "Condoleezza", not "Condolisa".
(Not being the Grammar Gestapo here, just trying to help ;-))
Hahahah I'm really excited to see if any one feels inspired by this man's genius and tries this...
And this must almost call for an "Honorable Mention" from the Darwin Awards, don't you think?
If he gets shanked in prison, would that count?
The real robbery, of course, is charging over three dollars for a bottle of water.
Maybe it was BlingH20 or Kona Nigari...oh wait, this was in a Walmart, and those bottles of water are way more than 3 dollah.
Umm...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/26/man-attempts-lcd-tv-theft-using-water-bottle-upc-fails/comments/11827178/
That's not cool.
haha.
but seriously, 7years in jail! jesus christ. I think banning him from the store would be much more appropriate.
USA has gone mad, 7 years for this!! Not sure what is more stupid this guy or the justice system in USA!
it's "up to" to account for repeat offenders. Sure doing this once won't get you that much time in the slammer, but it lets them give you 6 months in the pen + 5 years probation to keep an eye on you. If you continue to screw up they can keep increasing the jail time (to the full 7 years) till you learn your lesson. Fly straight and get less time. The legal system in the US has high sentences but in most cases only the really stupid (or prosecutors trying to win an election) actually get them. Judges like to give second chances (50K/year in jail fees for a $500 TV is not worth their time) Normal people would have to do something really illegal to go to jail for the maximum time on the first go. The typical jailbirds are there because they repeat small crime (usually alcohol or drug related stupidity) and repeatedly break the terms of their probation/parole (get a job, follow the law, and no sauce) given by the judge and that's the one person you don't piss off.
Damn, so that's why that water bottle I bought cost me $517!
I feel for the guy who picked up the water bottle later on.
Woah, 7 years!!!! He should have killed a few people before he left, then he could have gotton away scott free.
It is easier to just walk out with an LCD from wal-mart.
My friends used to this with beer all the time. You get a case of beer and go through the self check out and scan the UPC on the beer can itself instead of the UPC on the case.
jail should not be the punishment for this -- because he tried to cheat a price, the punishment should be financial and he should be forced to pay a $5000 or go to jail (and more like maybe several months, not 7 years) if he does not pay up.
many times i've actually seen price tags accidentally wrongly placed by the store owners themselves, especially at grocery stores. i'm scared now ...
I wouldn't worry. I used to work at a grocery store, mistakes happen all the time. The store always just eats the loss, they aren't going to start accusing their customers of switching UPCs and lose business.
Not to mention if it went to court I don't think anything would happen since there would be no proof that you switched the tags.
And then someone picks up the $517 bottle of water...
ownt!
heh anyways that guy is a moron he should've used a $350 tag or something...or gone into self-checkout.
I feel sorry for the person who buys the £261 bottle of water. Wonder if they'll get arrested for that?
Do you not have dollar signs on UK keyboards?
someone did this at a store I worked at with a laptop. The difference is the cashier didn't catch it and she walked with a $1000 laptop for $25
I hope your store has a good medical plan.....that person really needs to get that tumor in their brain checked.
He should just be banned from the store.7 years for just switching a UPC sticker is harsh.There are criminals who have done worse things then this crime and be put away for 7 years.I could just imagine the criminals in the jail asking this guy "so what are you in for?" I switched the price tag of a Viore LCD for the pice tag of a water bottle.
Wow, that's kinda pathetic. Although someone did stuff a 15" Polaroid in a box fan box at the WAL*MART I work at.
I would just like to say that I am currently living in Kirksville, and this doesn't surprise me at all. Wal-Mart is the hot hangout spot on Friday nights, and there are a ton of rednecks that look at the TVs there. Can't wait until I get to move out of here...
Unfortunately, it's true. Only one more year here and then I can rejoin civilization.
POOR GUY POOR GUY......... Viore FLAME WAR YA YA YA WOOT WOOT GO GO GO ...........
People seem to forget that he's actually insisting the TV has the right bar code and that it's $3.17. If they have some surveillance cameras he will go down. He's not offering to purchase a TV with the correct bar code.
I could just imagine what would happen had his scam actually worked and he brought the TV home and it didn't work. He'd be right back at the store trying to claim a refund for the actual amount with his $3.17 receipt.
For 100% sure they have him on camera switching the UPC code. There's no way they could prosecute him otherwise. It's not a crime to take a mis-labelled item to checkout.
I actually watched a German conference on this online somewhere.. It was interesting, but I never though someone would be dumb enough to try to print and stick $3.16 label on a $700 TV!
I don't know if that was supposed to be funny or profound because it was neither.
Ignore that comment; it was supposed to be a reply elsewhere.
However this does work. My cousin has made a career out of it, From what I hear the old cashiers at Wal-Mart are the best, but you do have to keep it reasonable. Here is the secret as I know it. Buy the changed item with several hundred dollars of other stuff that you can return. This is just the principal of the scam and is not meant to be used in real life or you may face legal actions.
At least he could have tried stealing a name brand TV.