The Daily Populous Tuesday October 8th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by irishstar.com and submitted by IrishStarUS

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A woman filmed herself shoplifting at Walmart's self-checkout before getting caught by the supermarket chain's AI powered cameras - and still shared the clip to TikTok.

The shopper - known on TikTok as Nesha - she captioned the clip: “POV: When you usually don’t get caught and now you’re banned for 2 years from all Walmarts in my area.”

The clip has amassed over 2.2 million views and shows her scanning several items through Walmart's self-checkout system before she pretends to scan a backpack and places it in her shopping bag without actually processing the barcode.

The till screen then lights up and a notification pops up saying “Associate is on the way,” preventing her from scanning anything else or from checking out.

As a store employee comes over and scans in the screen tells her “Missed Scan Detected” with an overhead video recording showing the customer purposely not scanning the barcode as they move it over the till.

Nesha then moves her camera onto the employee who is covering their mouth and laughing.

Nesha wrote in the caption: “Even though she laughed … she called the manager, police and had us escorted outside #stealinggonewrong.”

A 2023 LendingTree survey reported that 15% of shoppers have purposefully stolen an item or a few at self-checkouts, with just 33% of them caught.

Walmart has introduced a string of new anti-shoplifting measures in recent months after losses of an estimated $3 billion a year due to theft.

Artificial intelligence is just one of the tools the retail giant has rolled out in recent years in a bid to catch thieves.

“Missed Scan Detection” uses AI-powered cameras and was first rolled out at Walmart stores in 2017, according to Business Insider.

Another recent initiative has seen Walmart introduce almost invisible barcodes on store-branded items allowing items to be scanned by passing through the scanning area without directly scanning a singular barcode.

The technology is part of a $3 million deal with Digimarc, however even with the changes Walmart has seen high levels of theft in certain areas leading to a total axing of self-checkout areas. The company claimed the move was part of a wider initiative to improve the “in-store shopping experience.”

In a statement to The New York Post, a Walmart spokesperson said the company “does not publicly disclose security measures in our stores.”

eamonious on October 7th, 2024 at 21:18 UTC »

This story is odd. Almost feels like she was paid to post this and Walmart is hoping it creates deterrence.

oddmanout on October 7th, 2024 at 20:54 UTC »

Well… I wanted to read the story but that website decided it would only show me ads. Was there actually a story buried in there somewhere? I couldn’t find it on mobile.

DotAccomplished5484 on October 7th, 2024 at 20:09 UTC »

Why do I think that she will try to make money off this event?