- Thieves stole over $100,000 in goods from Florida Home Depot self-checkouts across three years, the state's AG says.
- Three people face grand theft charges over the apparent scheme, which involved switching barcodes.
- Retailers are rethinking their self-checkout strategies amid concerns about theft.
Three people are facing grand theft charges after more than $100,000 of goods were stolen from Home Depot stores in Florida by swapping out the barcodes for lower-cost items at self-checkouts, the state's attorney general said.
Ashley Moody's Office of Statewide Prosecution filed criminal charges against three people it said carried out a "fraudulent barcode-switching scheme" as part of an organized retail theft ring, it said in a news release Monday.
The release said that an investigation had found that over a three-year period, and across 25 different occasions, Vicky Popat, Christopher Abad, and Christopher Eduardo Baglin switched barcodes on 281 buckets of Henry 887 Tropi-Cool roof sealer for the barcodes on Henry 345 Pre-Mixed Floor Patch in Home Depot stores in South and Central Florida.
On Home Depot's website, the roof sealer currently retails at $119 for a 0.9-gallon bucket or $349 for a 4.75-gallon bucket. The floor patch, meanwhile, costs $10.75 for a quart or $32.33 for a gallon.
Investigators claim that on the days the group carried out their scheme, they typically stole from two or three stores and switched the barcodes of between four and 16 buckets per transaction.
Moody's Office of Statewide Prosecution charged Popat with one count of grand theft over $100,000, and Abad and Baglin with one count of grand theft over $20,000. All three were charged with one count of scheming to defraud over $20,000.
"This group switched barcodes at self-checkout stations on expensive roof sealers for items that cost 95-97% less, and hit multiple Home Depot stores a day—ultimately stealing more than $100,000," Moody said in the release.
"Florida is a law-and-order state, and we are dismantling organized retail theft rings. Now, this group faces our Statewide Prosecutors and time in prison, where I can promise there is no self-checkout line."
Retailers are scrutinizing the role of self-checkout amid concerns that the technology is leading to higher levels of shrink — the industry term for missing and damaged stock. In some cases it is accidental — customers forget to scan an item or select the wrong product in error — but other times it is intentional.
Some retailers are cutting back on their use of self-checkout as a result. Target is limiting the hours it operates its self-checkouts in some stores, while Midwest grocery-store chain Schnucks is restricting its self-checkout lanes to customers buying 10 items or fewer.
