Man attempts LCD TV theft using water bottle UPC, fails
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted April 26th 2008 5:48AM
posted April 26th 2008 5:48AM
[Via Fark]
posted April 26th 2008 5:48AM
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well i must say, the state of america is in very poor shape. a man is being prosecuted for switching the stickers on items in a store. this is a great example of where corporations are seriously nazi at times. what ever happened to the spirit of forgiveness; ESPECIALLY SINCE HE DIDN'T SHOPLIFT ANTYTHING. THERE WAS NO CRIME COMMITTED!! Nazi fu#$bags.
Does anyone really believe the guy will get 7 years? They always do this, to discourage others from trying, the MAXIMUM sentence is what gets published. For a first offense if he pleads guilty the fine will be for 2x the cost of the merchandise and there'll be no jail time. Haven't you seen the signs in the bathrooms that say you can go to jail for 20 years for shoplifting? Sure you CAN if you plead not guilty and then tell the judge you slept with his wife...
Tomorrow I'm heading over to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to purchase a $10million mansion. But this article inspires me to think that I juuust might have to pull the ol' Twizzlers-UPC-On-Mansion trick, to score a mansion for a cool $1.79.
If you're going to do something like this, don't be a dumbass and put a fricking water bottle UPC on the box. The price difference is so vast as to draw attention, you IDIOT!!!
Instead, you put a UPC for a $100 item on the $500 item, and then the cashier MIGHT think it's a great sale. If they're really old, they may not notice anything at all.
NOBODY is going to believe it when the barcode scanner reads $3.16 for ANY television-- Not even a 13" CRT.
USE YOUR NOODLE, CRIMINALS.
Seriously, he could have gotten away with this if he hadn't been so greedy and ridiculously stupid. But then, he WAS shopping Wal*Mart, so that says something about his intelligence from the get-go.
Seven years in prison? Holy shit.
If you want to steal a TV, here is a genius plan some of my friends pulled off a long time ago that actually worked, I know stealing is wrong, but I have to give them points for originality at least.
So they walked into some big electronics store (I think it was circuit city) went right to the back and picked up the TV they wanted still in box. Then they went straight to the customer service desk with it and the conversation went something like this:
Thieves: I want to return this TV
Clerk: Well why is that?
Thieves: Well it turns out I can't really afford it so I need to return it
Clerk: Okay well do you have a receipt?
Thieves: No I lost it
Clerk: Well I'm sorry but I can't take anything back without a receipt
Thieves: What? No you don't understand, I cannot afford this, I NEED to return it
Clerk: Would you like to talk to a manager?
*Manager comes out etc etc.*
Thieves: Listen, I need to return this TV, I cannot afford it, I have bills to pay, I know I'm supposed to have a receipt but I don't have it, Please let me return this
Manager: I'm sorry but I really can't, especially with an expensive item such as this
Thieves: This is f-ing BS, I'm never coming to this store again
They walk out of the store with the TV.
Okay this is called stealing and it's not genius in any way. I wish you best of luck (since you have friends who might steal from you) and I wish the thieves be shot.
This won't work at most stores. The LP people are smart and observant enough to remember that this person did not walk in with the TV. Also, all returns must have a sticker on them at most stores. If it's something small, you're likely to be able to walk out with it, but something like a TV? If there's no sticker, you can forget about keeping it.
No, that won't work these days. You know those arch-shaped things you walk through on your way into and out of the store? The TV will set those off because the item was never scanned...
You think they'd put RFID tags on a boxed TV? They don't expect anybody to walk out with a TV. While it's possible they would, there probably is no RFID tag. Not every item has anti-theft tags on them; gum and batteries, for example. The store can't be bothered or can't afford to tag every single item.
I can't resist the temptation to laugh. I guess anyone who is dumb enough to swap UPC tags wouldn't know they have the item information encoded within.
Yeah, and the computer also knows whether or not to flip on the theft prevention device de-activator... thingy. I don't know the official name. Point is, if you swap a UPC for a water bottle onto a DVD and the cashier is dumb enough to fall for it, you're still f'ed at the door when they check your receipt and notice that the copy of Daddy Day Care your dumb ass is carrying is, in fact, NOT a Nalgene bottle.
Just my $.02 of fail-prevention.
Thats it.. I'm going to Best Buy today and changing all the bar codes in the TV section. Then leaving and waiting for the mayhem.
I too work in retail and on our theft prevention board there is an entry for feb; 'Lcd in bike box' Someone had evidently taken a bike and an LCD, taken them out of there boxes and put the LCD in the box for the bike and tried to purchase it, thing is there is a way he might have gotten away with it, but I won't say. $700 TV vs $70 bicycle? Hmm, hard choice there.
SELF CHECKOUT! god damn if you are going to steal dont be a complete moron about it.
wow. what a f|_|cktard.
what did he expect?
"it's three dollars and sixteen cents. thank you, have a great day"?
Here's what the cashier should have done:
Cashier: That's $3.16
Customer: -swipes credit card-
Cashier: I'll need your credit card. The system's being weird. I'll have to enter in the number manually.
Customer; Oh, OK....
Cashier: -writes down credit card number, expiration, and code from back. Hands it back to customer. Pretends to enter it into register.
Sale goes through for $3.16 and then later that day, the customer finds a few HUGE cash advances and purchases on his card occurred. He thinks to report it, but then realizes that if he reports it he'll be drawing attention to his own theft.
He's screwed. Cashier enjoys ill-gotten gains.
3.16 for a bottle of water, not even that much in Manhattan
Ever heard of Self-Checkout?
He got too greedy. He should have switched it with the tag from another, cheaper tv, not a $3 water bottle.
I wonder if the security cameras show him changing the tags.
Ok, Ive worked retail for many years. And there are a couple of things wrong with comments.
1. The EAS system is not "smart", any tags that pass over the de-activator are de-activated (assuming that the cashier did this correctly)
2. There are multiple barcodes on items. They are usually a UPC, and a serial number, Possibly an EAN. and in the example of a TV, manufacturer barcodes (these can be anything from tracking numbers to manufacture dates to what line they were made on.
3. And the one that no one has seem to said, is the fact that when a cashier scans an item it appears on the register. So when the cashier scans the item, its going to come up "water bottle" when you know its a TV.
4. As far as the comment where he "didn't steal anything" By going to the checkouts, and attempting to pay for the item, he showed intent. In Missouri, that is a crime. It's also a crime to circumvent security devices that includes the EAS tags. (unrelated I know) I'm sure he was insistent on that That was the price of the TV and wanted it for that price.
5. If you were to go Wal-Mart, and a price was switched, you wern't attempting to defraud the store, they wouldn't have you arrested. We would just get another TV or get the correct price, in the event that it was the last TV we simply wouldnt be able to sell it to you until we corrected the mismatch
Dugg for Smiths reference!
OMFG we have morons amoung us, did this guy just drink and /or smoke somthing before deciding this was a good idea?
I wonder what the guy who bought the $517-bottle of Evian thinks of all this.
should have used self-check out. no clerk to mess things up.