Q: Is there any punishment if any?
I was at Walmart I went to checkout I usually check out with the scanner just bacuase it’s faster. So I scanned all my food and heard beeps for everything bout unfortunately some items didn’t register. It was under 35$ 6 items when I spent a total of 85$. I even scanned my pineapples 4times cause I didn’t think I had scanned them twice. They refunded me my money for over scanning the pineapples but asked for my id for the things that didn’t scan. Didn’t give me the option to pay for them or anything just told couldn’t go back for 24 hours. Also said I would be getting a letter through the mail in about two months. I’ve never been in trouble and don’t look to ever getting in trouble for something so petty like this. Need help this happened in indiana. Will hire an attorney if needed. Thanks
A: If this incident happened in Indiana, you should post this as a question for lawyers in Indiana. Crimes are charged in the county where the crime occurred, not in the county where you live. But to answer you underlying question, yes you can be charged for underringing items at a self checkout. I've had to defend someone for that very situation. If the amount is very small, an innocent mistake would definitely explain it. But if the difference was more than $100, less people will think that it was a mistake.
A: The store made a record of your identity to be placed into the National Retail Theft Database for seven years. Expect a demand letter for a certain amount of money in the mail from the merchant's legal department or its law firm that sends the demands out under the statutory legal theory that the merchant may seek legal damages.
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