Walmart shopper accused of using self-checkout hack to steal over $1500 worth of items

An Iowa Walmart shopper has been accused of stealing over $1,500 worth of items from the store by taking advantage of a self-checkout hack.

As our lives are becoming more digital, so is society. From voice-activated bidets to a wide variety of home robots to help with your everyday needs, it’s become hard to stay away from this societal change.

Over the past few years, Walmart has been rolling out the use of self-scanning checkouts in their store, which allows customers to scan their shopping by themselves.

Self-checkout, first tested in supermarkets in the late 1980s, gained momentum 20 years ago. But grocers ramped it up even more three years ago to address the pandemic-induced severe labor shortages.

However, the recent increase of self-checkouts has also made it easier for people to steal from the stores. This was the case for an Iowa shopper who managed to steal over $1,500 worth of products by taking advantage of self-checkouts.

Walmart shopper charged with second-degree theft

Samantha Renee Perry, 33, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree theft on December 23, 2023, in Waterloo, Iowa.

Perry reportedly stole $1,496 worth of products from Walmart on October 16, 2023, and returned almost two months later on December 14, stealing $196 worth of items.

Perry has been released pending a trial.

According to court records, Perry allegedly used the store’s self-checkout machine and canceled the transaction before leaving the store with the goods.

A second-degree theft conviction is a class D felony in Iowa that’s punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $7,500.

Walmart employees also check customers’ receipts as they leave the store, which has become a hotly debated area of discussion.

In November 2023, a woman went viral on TikTok after sharing that a Walmart employee refused to let her leave after a faulty self-checkout machine had failed to give her a receipt.