Walmart thief's two-month self-checkout scam caught by cops after he stole $426.13 over 17 shopping trips

A MAN has been accused of stealing more than $400 worth of merchandise from a Walmart store.

The Arnold, Missouri, man was stopped by police before leaving a Walmart location in February after he allegedly failed to pay for $19.70 worth of items while using the self-checkout.

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Police found that the 69-year-old man allegedly developed a plot to pay less for merchandise he got from the store located at 2201 Michigan Avenue.

Store employees told police that the man used his scam at the self-checkout 16 times before the February incident, Arnold Police Department Chief Brian Carroll told The U.S. Sun.

The man had been stealing from the location since the first day of the year, Carroll stated in an email.

By the time he was detained for the alleged crime, the man had reportedly stolen $426.13 worth of items.

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The U.S. Sun has reached out to Walmart for comment.

SECURITY MEASURES

Some of the extra measures retailers like Walmart have taken amid the increase in shoplifting after the Covid-19 pandemic include weight sensors at self-checkout stations.

The weight sensors help tighten security around the kiosks - but they also come with mounting customer frustration.

The sensors often result in an error, believing there to be an "unexpected item in the bagging area."

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This error requires employee assistance, resulting in a delayed checkout experience.

While you can't catch all theft attempts, some customers make honest mistakes at the self-checkout stations, resulting in unintentional stealing.

According to TikTok user Ash (@ashthetruth21), Walmart has gotten pretty high-tech to stop theft.

"I have been summoned," the content creator, who frequently rails against Walmart, said in her video.

The beginning of the clip shows someone else taking footage inside a store with "Walmart new self-checkout machine" written over it.

The video then skips to Ash, who says: "So you see those little machines right there?

"Every time you scan something, it takes pictures of you, my dude.

"And let me just tell you, every time that you run your card through a Walmart scanner, they have a note of it.

"They can find you by your credit card," she claims.

She went on to allege that the cameras not only take photos of your face but also the card you use to pay.

"Then they hold it and store it as a file," she claimed.

"Every purchase that you make that's associated with a card, they can pull up date and time information and pull up the camera footage.

"And see what you purchased, if you purchased it, and blah, blah, blah.

"Those cameras can read into your wallet - and they do."

In a TikTok video shared by @sparkslawfirm, a lawyer walked the app's users through the multiple avenues police might use to obtain identification on a person who has stolen.

"The most popular is a credit card is used, they have the name, they have the face on camera, they go back in their records and they find that name," he explained in the video.

The expert explains that there isn't great news for people attempting to keep their identities sealed using cash, either.

"Let's say someone uses cash, so there's no name attached to it, but they have a camera or video footage."

In that case, officers use camera footage to watch the person leave the store and enter the parking lot.

"They go to the outside cameras and find out which car they get into and get a license plate off that camera and run it through the DMV, get a name, pull that driver's license picture, and match it to the footage on the camera," he explained.

The lawyer advised that Walmart shoppers "be careful and focused and pay attention" when using the self-checkout lane.

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In the comments of his informative video, some people cracked jokes about the "accidents" that might happen at self-checkout.

"I am not trained in scanning so if I miss something it’s not my fault," one person commented.