An ex supermarket worker has recalled how a self-checkout 'trick' landed one customer in big trouble.
Having worked in retail for seven years, the worker said this incident was one of the "craziest things" she had ever dealt with.
After being confronted for trying to deceive the machines, the customer refused to change her ways until she went too far.
READ MORE: Woman warned her 'trick' at supermarket self-checkouts is breaking the law
Taking to Reddit, the worker wrote: "So I've worked in retail for the last 7 years and 4-5 of them were running the Self-Checkout at a grocery store.
"We had people try to steal all the time. I got very good at saying "I'm sorry, but that last item didn't seem to scan, can you try it again?" since i had to say it like 50 times a day and we weren't ever allowed to accuse the customer of stealing (even when it was extremely obvious they were.)
"Usually they would try once and when i caught them they didn't do it again because they knew i was watching. This woman and her mother that I'm about to talk about were not one of these people. She was maybe early to mid 30's and the mother was probably 60's or 70's."
The worker said the first time she saw the pair, they were both on the same machine, the daughter was using the machine, and the mother was handing her the items.
She said she noticed something was wrong when she looked at her screen and saw what they were ringing up as her screen showed the item they just scanned and the price.
Their screen looked something like:
Banana : €7.87
Banana : €6.54
Banana : €5.50
Banana : €8.34
The worker said: "I was very confused until i went over and saw they were just putting their items, sometimes multiple at a time, on the scale and entering in the code for Bananas.
"They had probably $60 or $70 worth of meats in their bag plus a bunch of other random and expensive items.
"I went up to her, kind of shocked by how insane it was that she thought i wouldn't notice, but my usual line didn't really apply here and it took me a second to finally say 'Umm.. I'm sorry but nothing in your bags is scanned, you can't just use weigh all your items like that..;
"And I'll never forget what she did. She turned to me, looking a little confused at first then said..
'Oh, Ok. I'll fix it.' Than just went back to putting her items on the scale and trying to weigh them again."
The woman said she was left speechless and didn't know what could make the shopper think she would get away with her trick.
The worker continued: "After a few seconds of me trying to process what just happened i said to her
'I'm sorry, but i need to cancel your order. You need to take everything out of the bag and-' She cuts me off and completely changes her tone. 'I said I'll fix it! I know what I'm doing!'
"She goes back to weighing her items and I'm just standing there like "WTF just happened?" So i just walk back to my screen because we can lock any machine from there and that's exactly what i did." The worker then called for a manager and explained what had happened.
She said: "Manager goes over and talks to them but at this point i have like 5 or 6 other customers that are also using the checkout that i need to help so i didn't get to hear what my manager said to them.
"A few minutes later the manager cancels their order and they move their items to another machine. He tells me they will scan everything again and to just watch them, than he leaves.
"Now they're at a closer machine to me so i can see them better and for awhile everything is fine. They aren't weighing anything and just as i think this whole thing is over i see her scan 1 item, pause and look around, than grab like 3 other items and put them all in the bag with the item she just scanned.
"I was looking RIGHT AT HER.
"She knew i was looking right at her. She goes to scan another item and i walk up to her.. again.. and say 'You need to stop, only 1 thing in that bag scanned. You need to take them out and scan them again'
"She just looks at me, annoyed, and sighs. Turns back and tries to keep scanning her next item.
"I'm absolutely done with this crap. I lock her machine AGAIN and call the manager back AGAIN. Tell him what happened. At this point it's very busy in the store and everyone else is waiting on me to help them so i leave again and let the manager deal with it.
"He ends up cancelling her order again and scanning all their items for them.
"I would like to ad at this point the woman's mother has not said a single word. Shes just kind of acting like nothing is even happening. The daughter is very upset but doesn't make a scene or raise her voice. Just keeps saying this like 'Just let me do it myself.' 'Why are you taking so long?' 'I know what I'm doing!'
"He finishes scanning everything and they pay and leave. I'm like "Thank god this is finally over" OH BOY WAS I WRONG."
The two women returned to the store two to three times a week for months and never tried to weigh their items again.
Instead, they would "always scan 1 thing than try to put multiple items in the bag without scanning them. Which was even more stupid than weighing them because the machine locks up if the weight doesn't match so even if i wasn't looking it's obvious what happened.
"Sometimes they were together but sometimes they tried to split up so it was harder for me to watch both of them. In all this time the mother never spoke a word to me.
"When i stopped her she just looked confused than the daughter would come over and re scan the item for her. It was always stupid things to like a can of soda or a bag of chips.
"The daughter would always try to steal more expensive meat or seafood. After they would almost always go to the lottery machine behind me and buy a bunch of tickets then leave.
"I told the managers and security every time this happened but they never did anything about it. I eventually stopped working Self-Checkout and moved around to different departments in the store."
She said the store finally called the police, and the daughter was arrested.
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