In one survey conducted by a coupon company of 2,634 shoppers, nearly 20% admitted to having stolen at a self-checkout - half said it was because detection was so unlikely. "Removing the human eyes and replacing them with technology makes the process seem less shameful." "Most of us feel ashamed at getting caught by a fellow human trying to steal something," Shadd Maruna, a professor of criminality at Queens University in Belfast, said in an email. One study found shoppers are four times more likely to steal from a self-check terminal than a human cashier because it provides the illusion of anonymity - and it is so easy. Sticking an expensive item in your basket without scanning it at all is called the "pass around." Ringing up a $13.99 T-bone steak as if it was produce priced at 49 cents per pound, for example, is known as the “banana trick." Self-checkout theft has become so common that a whole new lexicon has sprung up to describe it. The hitman chronicles: 9 cases of murder for hire in Kentucky and Southern Indiana The 'banana trick' and other self-checkout theft On Wednesday, however, Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office will ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to reinstate Shirley’s conviction - lining up behind retailers eager to stem a burgeoning form of crime. Shirley, and millions of other Walmart customers - have the retail giant’s permission to use its self-checkout scanners to pay for merchandise, the appeals court reasoned. The appeals court also said the crime didn’t meet the statute’s definition - using a computer without its owner's "effective consent." The offense was a felony punishable by five to 10 years in prison.Ī jury found Shirley guilty, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed her conviction, saying it would be "inherently unfair to convict somebody of a class C felony for theft of goods worth $80."
The prosecution and Walmart contended that when Shirley misled the self-checkout scanners, she was tapping unlawfully into the sophisticated computer system connected to them.
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