Shoplifters are a menace to supermarkets. For thieves caught in the act, they are charged and banned from stepping into the store again.
There are resilient shoplifters though who keep coming back.
One of them, 37-year-old Ashley Cross, was caught again and charged with theft of merchandise after allegedly shoplifting from a Walmart store on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, Newsweek reported.
Cross, along with another woman, allegedly used an old watch barcode battery to scan a number of items at a self-service machine for just $1 each, according to Newsweek. The items found on her, however — 11 packs of Ramen noodles, jeans, a T-shirt and boots — totaled $137.34.
Her companion, meanwhile, used the same bar code to steal two bras, a backpack, a lash kit and a car accessory all valued at $57.86. She used the same bar code scanning technique.
In the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, a 40-year-old woman was arrested on 10 February after leaving a Lawson convenience store.
The store manager ran after the woman, catching up to her one kilometer from the shop. The manager restrained the woman until police arrived and took her into custody.
She had no stolen items on her but the manager demanded that she pay 180 yen for the buns that she allegedly squashed and damaged while at the store.
The woman claimed she “only checked the firmness of [the buns] by pressing lightly with my hand,” BBC quoted police as saying.
The manager said one of the black sesame and cream cheese buns in the bag that she felt was damaged and the entire bag could no longer be sold.