Labeling up

A thief who somehow lost his clothing during a botched carjacking ran around a neighborhood almost naked, trying to steal another car instead of pants and a shirt.

Residents of the community in Gwinnett County, Georgia, USA alerted police when they saw a male suspect with only a tablecloth wrapped around his waist and wearing glasses and blue slippers. Footage from home security cameras showed the man trying to get inside parked cars.

Nearby officers responding to the carjacking of a truck, which they later found abandoned, proceeded to the area, but the suspect had already left with a stolen Mercedes-Benz. The police pursued the getaway vehicle and, upon spotting it, set up a traffic stop, where Mackienzy Kahl was arrested, the New York Post (NYP) reported.

Kahl had been charged with theft, burglary, entering an automobile with the intent to commit theft or a felony, loitering and prowling, and driving without a valid license, according to NYP.

Except for Kahl, no one steals cars naked. Thieves are clothed when they strike, including those who scam clothes merchants.

An online meanswear seller in China had fallen victim to buyers who asks for refund after wearing the items they bought.

The vendor surnamed Wang, from Changzhou, Jiangsu province, told Dami Video that while customers return items because they do not match the product images shown by online shops, some buyers exploit their 7-day return without question policy by wearing the clothes for photographs or events before requesting refunds, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Other buyers even used artificial intelligence technology to create fake photographs of damaged products to force refunds, according to SCMP.

Clothes returned dirty and could no longer be resold result in losses to sellers. Wang avoided the refund abuse and losses with a creative solution. He changed the small clothes labels, which can be hidden by some buyers so they can discreetly wear the ordered clothing before returning them for a refund.

Wang posted videos on Chinese social media showing an oversized mouse pad as tag to a shirt being worn by a model. The tag is nearly as wide as an adult’s back so Wang said that “if some buyers want to try on clothes for free, they will have to walk around with something as weird as this,” according to SCMP.

Wang also used as clothing labels, hand-made ashtrays, water jugs, hand sanitizers, socks and underwears. While he incurred additional cost for such tags, Wang avoided many exploitative returns, doubled his sales, and drew more customers impressed by the creative labeling scheme, SCMP reports.

He plans to use as tags items that cost more than the clothes he sells, including computer graphic and recharge cards.