A woman recorded herself on camera shoplifting at Walmart using the self-checkout option to conceal the items. She seemed unmoved as the store’s AI cameras caught her in the act. She then proceeded to post the clip on TikTok. The woman was caught by Walmart employees before the police were called.
According to the New York Post, the clip shows the woman taking a few items in the Walmart store to have them run through the self-checkout machine. She then placed a backpack on the belt as if it had been scanned when it was actually just dumped into the bag.
The computer screen soon flashes a notice saying “associate is on the way” meaning she cannot continue to scan more articles or check out.
When a worker comes over and scans her card, the screen reportedly switches to “Missed Scan Detected” with overhead video footage of the customer pulling the backpack over the scanning zone without ever scanning the barcode.
While the employees laughed at the situation in the beginning, they ultimately addressed it to the management and requested police intervention.
“Even though she laughed … she called the manager, and police and had us escorted outside,” the caption read with the hashtag “#stealinggonewrong.”
For this, she was served with a ban on all the Walmart shops in the region for two years.
According to a 2023 LendingTree poll, 15% of consumers admitted to having purposely stolen one or more items from self-checkouts; of them, only 33% were apprehended.
Gitnux claims that Walmart loses approximately $3 billion annually as a result of theft, which is why the retailer has stepped up its anti-shoplifting efforts. The retail behemoth has been using artificial intelligence as one of its tactics to apprehend potential thieves over the past few years.
According to Business Insider, “Missed Scan Detection” was originally introduced at Walmart locations in 2017 and uses AI-powered cameras to mitigate theft and inventory losses.
The superstore chain has started using almost invisible barcodes on store-branded merchandise. These barcodes enable things to be scanned by just moving past the scanning area, eliminating the need to scan every single barcode.
The newly developed technology is included in a $3 million contract with Digimarc.
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