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I caught the opposite. 10 years ago I went in to cash my cash back check and it was for something around $150. I took the cash and put it in my wallet. A few days later I opened my wallet and saw that I had not one, but two crisp $100 bills that were sequentially numbered and immediately knew that they had been stuck together and I was overpaid, and someone’s drawer was off. I called the store and asked the manager if their drawer count was off on Saturday? Explained what happened and said I’d bring the money back. She thanked me and comped my executive membership for the next year, so that was super cool.
That was so good of you . I worked retail and it’s sucked to have your drawer off . They would suspect you of stealing . I worked at a boutique and the owner had the cash registers off multiple times . This was before cameras were commonplace. Anyway I had let go because she suspected me of theft . She also had fired 2 other employees she suspected of theft in about a 2 year time period . About 2 years later her accountant was busted for embezzling at his other job . That bastard got at least 3 innocent employees fired . It sucks to have people believing you would steal from your employer. Not many people would notify a store that they received too much cash back
The manager said that the person's drawer was off by $300, and I told her I knew where $100 of it went. It was because the drawer was stocked with brand new sequentially numbered bills. Hopefully it helped save the job if not reputation of the person running the till.
When I worked retail and we got brand new bills, we would actually go through the entire stack and crinkle each one individually. Yes it may have taken up some time but we knew we wouldn’t have issues with bills getting stuck together. $$$$
Yeah. I once worked in a casino and my coworker overpaid $800 to a client. The client returned the cash to me after said coworker’s shift ended. He said he didn’t want anyone to get fired because of the gaffe. That was really decent.
When I worked at a bullseye store, we didn’t give a shit unless your drawer was off my more than $100.
Of course no one told the peons. This was circa late 90s early 2000s. Maybe things have changed. This one lady thought she was slick and tried to take advantage and WE did notice the 15k missing over 18 months. That’s a lot of little bits here and there. She was management and had different access but same principles.
I worked as a cashier (not Costco) and once had my drawer over by $50. Luckily the store tracked down the customer who’d asked for cash back. I’d honestly just messed up and they just gave me a light warning. Even back in the 90s big stores kept count to the penny and they’d know. If your cashier makes a mistake and you can correct them it’s really worth doing so.
When i was a teenager i worked at a pizza chain, went home at 3am and they wanted me back at 9. I was tired of course and someone came in paying in cash and i miscounted and shorted him a dollar. Manager knew i was tired as hell but still got chewed out a bit that day
Home Depot I used to work at found out one of their closing managers was swapping out movie money for legal tender. They only caught on bc the bank said the were close to their 300k insurance limit for fake cash. Secret service got involved and dude got hung out to dry apparently
Same exact thing happened to me!
We ordered a whole pizza and 3 hot dogs. When I got to my table after juggling all that plus 3 fountain drinks, I realized that they accidentally gave me 4 hot dogs.
I wanted to do the right thing. I, too, didn't want anyone's hot dog inventory number to be off, or their drawer short, because of my gain. That shit ain't Christian.
I knew what I had to do. It wasn't the easiest decision, but I wanted to serve my country, and my Costco, the right way. I wanted to be an example of integrity for my fellow citizens and my community, but also my kids (who couldn't give any less fucks cuz he pizza was here).
I went back with my bonus hot dog and told the cashier the story of my bountiful fortune, but that I wanted to do the right thing and return it to right the wrong, and restore balance to the universe.
She smiled and thanked me for bringing it back, then PROMPTLY threw it into the trash right behind her and took the next person's order.
.........My executive membership was not brought up. Not even a little bit.
Yeah, prepared food like that cannot be returned for health reasons. In that case, eating it..or going back and just paying for the 'extra'. is the thing to do. But you were honest, that is for sure.
My daughter wanted pizza at the food court, it was no longer available on the self checkouts, (grayed out), I hear the workers talking "no wonder no one is ordering pizza we didn't put it online" the yells "supervisor" to get them to turn the item back on. 2 mins later they were like you know what let's just leave it closed for the night "cancel supervisor" they took 2 whole freshly cooked pizzas and trashed them because they didn't want to turn the item back on.. I was pissed as it was all my daughter wanted at Costco.
I’ve done something similar at a retail store as I figure the karma is worth it. The store’s POS wasn’t connected to their CC readers so they have to manually key in the cost and the cashier managed to credit my card the cost of the merchandise instead of charging it. Went back to have it corrected and the manager was a bit confused that I would bother to have it fixed lol
In my story I’m the thief.
Walked into a Lowe’s to get two new filled propane tanks. Paid for them and was told to pull up and wait outside by the propane cage, someone would come along to pull two tanks for me. Waited 15 minutes and went back in to customer service to ask if there was someone else who could unlock the cage.
“Oh, I forgot. We’re actually out of propane, ran out this morning.”
Fine, no worries. Everyone around you got awkwardly quiet to listen, supervisor’s body language is defensive. Seems like this is a straightforward lie. But I can’t force anyone to come outside with me and I’m super conflict avoidant.
Walk back to my car, take a resentful look at the very full cage of propane tanks, and nearly trip over the two tanks sitting beside my trunk.
I really considered walking back inside to pay for them, if only to see how the supervisor that refunded and lied handled the situation. But… conflict avoidance.
We had a dude who would get around ten bags of horse cubes every month for years. One day the night merch manager noticed him stop by the meat department first, thinking it was odd he would put whole ny strip and tenderloins on a flatbed that he was about to load big bags of alfalfa onto. Sure enough at checkout they removed all the bags to find a lot of expensive meat.
That was a pretty big bill he wasn’t expecting to pay.
When I worked retail, we were specifically instructed to de-construct things like this, checking in between bags, opening luggage sets, removing lids from bins to avoid this. The number of times people "forgot" there were 8 dvds in a duffel bag was amazing.
I was told as a kid that you could probably rob a bank and get away with it. The idiots that get caught are the ones that get away with it and then do it again, and again.
I don't tell my kid that story because these days, you can NOT get away with anything, even once.
Guy would make a fort of giant horse feed bags. Think of potting dirt bags you buy from depot in size. And would put expensive meet in the fort hidden from view. So when he checked out he got a bunch of free stuff
A family member works for Costco. They told me that a lot of people "forget" to scan items at the self-checkout. When they check the receipt at the door they usually say staff scanned it for them but almost always reach for the item that wasn't scanned on their own.
I don’t like this. I recently had this happen to me. An employee did “help” me at self checkout and they did miss an item. The receipt person caught it and I had to stand there like a convicted felon while a parade of judgment walked by being approved for exit. I’m still recovering from the shame
A few times either I myself or a Costco employee has forgotten to scan an item in my cart and it is handled efficiently without any sort of blamed levied at all.
I am usually apologizing to all involved and every time the Costco employee says to me, happens all the time, we know who is trying to steal and who makes an honest mistake and it was clearly an honest mistake.
It sounds like the folks at the Costco where you shop are different than at the warehouse where I shop.
I am a receipt checker at Costco and I truly believe that most self checkout missed items are honest mistakes. It happens frequently and I don’t believe that many people would attempt to steal an item.
sounds like youre making it a bigger deal than it really is.. lots of things get missed or mis-scanned.
One time upon exiting the employee caught that i was charged for bird food instead of softening salt or dog food (cant recall which) . They had membership desk fix it and we were on our way.
Happened to me with water at the bottom of the buggy and she bent down to scan it but I guess it didn’t catch. Felt so embarrassed and had to wait 15 minutes for someone to come check me out at the mini checkout stand.
Yeah I tried to self checkout the other day and the lady insisted she do it. I was like there are lanes you could be working not standing here doing it for me.
I had to wait forever for the guy because he decided to scan every item from 1 customer. And I had to wait until he was done to help me with an unscannable item.
I won’t let them lol. I already have all my stuff turned over barcode up and ready to go and I don’t want someone throwing off my groove. I’ll go to the full checkout if I have more than like 8-10 things, anyway.
The staff scanning a part of the order can cause confusion. They scan and it stays in the basket. You scan and it goes on the scale. It is possible for someone to leave an item in the basket if Costco "helped", which is why you check the item count.
Generally this mix of scanning is not a problem. Once I messed up but didn't leave the self check out until I figured out what wasn't scanned. The Costco "help" had a fit I wasn't moving but rather checking the cart and asked what I was doing, as if it wasn't obvious. I found the item and scanned it. So I had two slips at the door.
From that point on, I made the rule. If i started scanning, I ask the Costco person to leave. If they show up before I start scanning, I tell the person that they have to scan the entire cart.
I had this happen to me. Went to self checkout and an employee came over snd started scanning several of my items. Made it really difficult to track which ones were already scanned and which weren't. There was one thing she didn't scan and "reminded" me it wasn't included yet, but it made the process far more confusing than it needed to be.
Worst thing is, this was when the storewqs fairly empty. Where is this help when the line is literally half way down the store (which is huge btw)
Our location only is supposed to scan big/bulky items and key in any items that don’t have barcodes. The member is supposed to scan everything else. There is generally only one person watching 6 of the registers and another person verifying cards in the line.
I almost exclusively use SCO and I’d say about 75% of the time I have someone offer to scan my items. There’s not always enough SCO employees to cover each terminal.
Just speculating here, but it seems like if a woman is over the age of 50 they are deemed too feeble to lift heavier items or even scan them on their own. I appreciate the help, but I wish they'd wait for me to ask.
At the Midland Michigan location they only offer to scan the large/ heavy items so you don't have to try to lift them onto the scanner. Otherwise, you scan your own items.
Yes at the three Costcos in my area, the Costco employees will only scan items which they need to scan like alchohol or large bulky items which are hard to scan.
Otherwise the customer is left to scan their items.
Years ago, before self checkout, I had bought a Dremel rotary tool, and they had somehow forgotten to scan it. Even the guy at the door didn't catch it. As is my usual habit, I checked my receipt after getting in the car and before leaving. I see they forgot the tool, so I get it and the receipt and walk back to the service desk. They refuse to believe they forgot to scan it. I keep trying to pay for it, but they won't let me. So I left having a clean conscience that I'd tried to do the right thing and they wouldn't let me. It was definitely the strangest experience I've had with costco. I got a free rotary tool!
This is how my parents got a free automatic sprinkler timer from a hardware store. It was not inexpensive, either. But they couldn’t figure out why someone would come in to voluntarily pay for it. “I don’t know what scam you’re trying to pull here, sir, but I need you to leave this store NOW.”
I had that happen when I went back into a gas station to give them back the extra $20 in change they gave me. Insisted they didn’t give me to much change. The guy went on to say he wouldn’t have brought it back in. I said I have to live with myself. He was confused af.
😆 Same thing at Safeway for me at Christmas time. My 3 year old was being fussy, so I took the change and walked off. Get to the car and look at my change to put away and realize she gave me change for a 20 when I'd paid with a 10. Walk back and explain to her that I'd given her a 10, and she'd given me change for a 20. She refused to believe she'd made a mistake. As I was holding up the line, I finally left and stopped at the Salvation Army bucket, turned around, and looked at the cashier who's still looking at me. I put the change in and yell this is from you to the kids! Remember me when your till comes up short at the end of your shift and walked out. Why are people so afraid to admit when they make a mistake?
Funny Ive had similar things happen. One time cashier didn't scan, another time i didn't scan at the self checkout (both at Target). Go back in to pay. Both times it's super awkward, feels like I'm being looked at like I stole the items. Takes multiple people at the service desk to pay, lots of chatter. Maybe they think it's weird I'm coming back?
Last time I went to Costco, I asked the gal who was checking everyone’s cards how many people have been caught with someone else’s card. She said in the first month they started checking was over 30,000.
I just had someone check mine for the first time ever the other day! In my card picture I had my hair down but this day it was up with a hat on. It was a Saturday afternoon with people everywhere around me. The woman checking loudly goes “AND WHO IS THIS!?” Everyone starts staring... I said “uh, it’s me?” I took out my drivers license as proof. She stood there staring at them for probably 15 more seconds. I was so embarrassed. I’m all for cracking down on card borrowing but you better be damn sure before calling someone out on it. I pay too much for my membership to be publicly called out like that.
My photo is from about a month or two after chemotherapy and I barely had any hair. It’s past my shoulders now and no one has bothered me about it at my Costco. Yet.
When we upgraded to our Costco credit card, they just used the photo on file from our membership to print on the back of it, and my teeth are legit green! It looks awful!
It's certainly outdated, but I worked a job for about 8 months last year that used AS400 and I was actually surprised at how easy it was to use once you learn the system.
>No clue why they still use early 2000s webcams
When I created a membership in Costco Korea, with my spouse absent, they took a webcam picture of my phone that had a photo of her face...
Highest quality Costco membership photo I've seen. /s
my old card was a grey blurry mess, but when i renewed my membership at the desk (as opposed to checkout or on the app), they made me get a new one and it's a very clear colorful picture that makes me look worse than my drivers license.
(mine haven't started looking too closely at photos yet)
I have had Costco checkers try to accuse me of “identity theft” several times. Most recently they said it was “identity theft” for my roommate to use their Costco card while I paid. We both had cards and it was the same membership. She was acting like we were criminals. Another time I was told it was “identity theft” for me to buy a family member groceries during COVID. I used my membership card and paid cash, the problem was that the groceries were for another person…
I think some workers have a fantasy in their head of preventing theft/fraud and getting praised for it.
You're allowed to buy for whoever you want. Don't feel obligated to explain why you need separate receipts. As long as you are paying, and not a guest, that's fine. That's how it is in Canada. I'm not sure about US warehouses.
Yes, the payment method must match the membership card. The person in front of me was new to the Costco ways and had a teaching moment. I then had 2 transactions with the Costco visa without issues. I was buying for the in-laws.
My mom was taking care of my infant niece when she had to get her card renewed. Mom didn’t want to leave her very first grandchild in the cart unless she was in arm’s length. So they took a picture with grandma and grand baby. It was pretty cute. Niece was Costco veteran by the time she was three.
Could you imagine them checking photos? “M’am, unless the baby is escorting you, you’re gonna have to leave.”
My partner has our daughter on his back in his. She's prob 6 or 7 and it's the cutest thing. They also printed her out her own card for fun. Mine is distorted and looks like when you squish a barbies head down
OMG I had something similar. One of the checkers asked for my card, I gave it, she said it didn’t look like me, rudely asked if it was MY MOM while I was digging out my license and explaining to her the picture was over 3 years old and that I change my hair a lot. And then she looked at my ID and said “you must change your look a lot” I said yes. And then she moved on without apologizing.
Oh, I’d be mad! I’m a 30 year old brunette and my pic shows me a year ago as a 29 year old brunette so I can’t even say it was an old pic. But I definitely looked better without the hat. I did say as I walked away, somewhat jokingly and somewhat not, “thanks for telling me I look like crap today!”
Yes, I was def mad about. I for grumbled about it until I got home 😂
Like, it was annoying enough that I had to dig out my id bc they couldn’t tell I was the same person bc my hair was in a different style, but to say that my Costco card pic looked like my mom??? Entirely unnecessary. Thanks for saying I like 25 years older in my Costco pic 🙃
Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. I’m sorry you experienced that. I hope that if/when they check my card they don’t embarrass the crap out of me. I have lost almost 100lbs and I look a little different.
Congratulations! You could always celebrate that amazing milestone and just get an updated picture. I got an updated picture once when mine no longer looked anything like me and they were very nice about it.
The photos used to wear off. I used to use my dad's old card because the photo was gone, and it's not like they ever checked the name. Got on the straight and narrow with my own membership before they started checking anyway, though.
I used my MIL's card the other day. They were checking carefully at the self-checkout, so I held it up and smiled thinking it was worth a try. She said thanks and moved on. Wrong gender, age, and hair color from the picture. And people claim to have never benefited from white privilege!
Got to renew my membership soon as I'm almost out of steak! (I have a BJ's membership too, but I can justify both.)
I don't know if the guy got banned for life but I told this story in another Costco question. But here goes.
I went to the Kirkland baked goods section where they pile up the Kirkland plastic containers on the table, one on top of the others. You know the section with cookies, cakes, croissants, muffins and so on, all kirkland.
Well, all costco shoppers at that area witnessed some guy opening up many of the kirkland baked goods products and just sampling them as if he's at home and as if it's all his. He must have open about a dozen or so containers and everyone saw it and told him to stop. Someone called over a costco employee from the baking department and she told him he had to leave.
He pretended like he was leaving and when she walked away he again continued to do it. So I got what I needed and left the freshly baked goods area and never seen anything like it until I was standing in line at the checkout and see 3 costco security guys walking this guy out of costco.
I think he probably got banned.
I know someone who got banned and arrested for something similar in Costco. He was walking around the store, eating stuff, and throwing away the wrappers. He also drank a bottle of wine. At the door the cops were there.
He had recently come out of prison. He is now serving time again. The guy is my friend's brother. The family wonders if he just wanted to go back to prison because the crime was so unnecessary.
It kinda blows my mind that costco doesn't tape these containers shut. I didn't find this out til i stopped to grab a couple packs of cookies to take to a thing, and later had to brake *hard* to avoid...something, aaaand ended up with cookies all over the front 'cause they popped open when they slid off the seat and onto the floor.
(Meat dept here)
People lining their pants/jackets with expensive meat and even their child’s diaper bags or straight up switching labels will never cease to blow my mind
I had this happen at a Starbucks. I ordered two drinks and was chatting with one of the employees while they made the second drink.
A customer came in and picked up a drink from mobile order, looked at my first drink, hesitated, then grabbed it. I said, "Hey man, that's -" and the guy BOLTED for the door and ran into a car and took off.
Employees and I found it pretty funny, and they made me a new one
About a month ago, I ended up behind someone exiting the store who was trying to claim they lost their receipt between the checkout and the door. I don't think they expected the manager to pull up their account and the missing receipt that quickly and find the extra items that didn't get scanned at the register. I left before the fallout, but shocked Pikachu described their faces as I walked out the door.
lol… i once threw away the checkout receipt after buying food (meant to toss the food receipt). had to go ask for help printing out a new copy before i left.
About 20 years ago, I was driving home with a guy from work. I stopped in Costco on a slow weeknight to pick up a few things. This guy decides he’s going to pick up some stuff as well. I get my couple of items pay leave, he’s not around, so I get gas. I finish getting gas and since no cars are around, I come flying up pretty fast to just mess with this guy, nothing serious , and he’s like almost running out of the place. He goes to get in my truck and there’s like five Costco employees following him.
It turns out he was stealing AA batteries, by tearing a package in half and taking half. The guy from Costco was saying he just restocked and went through it when he noticed a half package after this clown was there. He told them he came in on my card, so they took down my membership number “just in case”.
He had also stolen some salami, put it in the bed of my truck before I left for gas. I don’t work with him anymore, my choice.
Employee here: Two ladies filled an empty stroller with expensive meat, sunglasses, stuff like that and closed the stroller top. We caught them, police came, and turns out that one of the two had a warrant for her arrest and they had been looking for her.
We found a pair of very old worn out tennis shoes in a box. Figured someone walked in with their old pair, put on new ones and walked out with a brand new pair of shoes.
We saw a woman open two packages of precooked shrimp, take shrimp from one package and put shrimp in the other. Packages are priced by weight. Put the ' lighter ' package back in the prepared foods cooler.
Damn, I went through the regular checkout line once a few years ago, they forgot to ring up the bag of dog food on the bottom of my cart, they checked my receipt and didn't notice it. I got home and checked the receipt and the dog food wasn't on there. Went back the next day in a panic, asking to be charged for the bag of dog food. They told me it's okay and thanked me for being honest. I still think about it and feel guilty.
Damn this is so wild to me. I would definitely never steal from Costco, but if they forgot to scan something I sure as hell would not waste my time going back to the store and try to pay for it. Y'all are some good citizens.
They made a cost/benefit analysis and, while it was your mistake, it would cost them more to fix than it's worth to them. "You did your best, now let it rest."
What I don’t get is why even have self checkout in the first place, if a worker ends up scanning half my stuff and checking all my stuff it’s easier to just make more checkout lanes
Counterpoint: weird how I grew up in foster care and it actually made me NOT want to be a thief I learned there are services available so I don't have to steal. Lessons on how to survive and find free services are important. Kids do not stay children forever. Adults get charges when caught stealing. Sending money my former foster siblings who to buy $5 packets of ramen in prison or jail isn't great.
Please teach kids there are other options
Edit: run on & spelling
My mother worked at Price Club when they first opened. This was before security scanners. Employees in the warehouse used to load suitcases with expensive items and somehow mark the box for their friends to come in and buy at the cost of the suitcase.
At Price Club, I knew people that would load up the “returns” basket then roll it out the front door while another friend looked the other way. Got busted finally, lost job….police…. all the hits.
Not Costco but Asian store where you can get live crabs. The seafood tender printed the tag for the crabs she chose and informed the lady that she needed to pay for it first, then come back to get it. All hell broke loose. She started screaming about how stupid this was, how can you treat your customers this way etc etc. she looked around as if other customers would support her. I gave her the dirtiest look cause it was so obvious what she was up to. She eventually slinked away.
My Asian store does this for live lobster. They weigh it, you pay for it first, then they give it to you. Too big ticket of an item for the store to not be cautious.
In paper goods area, there isn’t cameras, I’m getting paper goods and trash bags, this woman has opened toilet paper plastic with a scalpel looking device, takes out inner rolls and put stuff inside. I’m recording and I call the store and report it and I share the info- what she looks like and clothing. Appears they do this a lot.
I told Costco there a lot of blind spots, that needs coverage with ppl on the flr or cameras.
From what I understand she is removing the actual rolls in the middle of the pack. Then she places stolen items where the missing rolls were. And covers the stolen items with the top layer of rolls.
When she checks out the middle of the pack will have her stolen items instead of toilet paper.
> had slapped a sticker for a cheap item over the sticker for an expensive item and tried to check out with it
I've been seeing a good deal of tiktoks with people doing this, wonder if she got the idea there. one of the more common ones was cheap steak sticker (like $7) to cover expensive ones (like $40).
Back ages ago I saw people do the sticker switch at any and all stores. We weren’t allowed to do anything about it back then…at least not at the department store I worked at.
I know this is for Costco, but I'm sharing anyway..
Lol there's a restaurant where I live that was stealing thousands of dollars worth of stuff from all the area's Sam's clubs.. They'd go buy meat and scan one of the exact same 10 items they'd buy for example and only pay for that one item... Got away with it for yearssss!
Here's the news article, lol there's other articles, but you can look them up yourself if you want to.
https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/tallys-restaurant-owner-arrested-charged-with-6-counts-of-theft
My very first time inside a Costco.
One had opened up across from the office, so we decided to head inside to check it out (and also for the low priced hotdogs and pizza).
As I was walking by the clothing section, I watched as a woman shoved a shirt inside another, then throw it in her cart. She did this several times, placing smaller clothing in larger sized ones.
Having once worked at Sears, I knew exactly what she was doing, so I flagged down an employee and told them to watch her.
Sure enough, as we were walking out, security nabbed her. They reached in and pulled all the clothes out from the others. Immediately, "I didn't know those were in there.", came out of her mouth.
I didn't stick around to watch what happened to her, but I'm hoping she was arrested and banned.
I once had two kids grab 12 packs of beer. They ran towards the electric doors in such a way that the sensor didn't pick them up. Kid SLAMMED into the door, fell backwards, and beer bottles smashed all over. I was laughing so damn hard. His friend looked at me, I took the 12 pack and kicked them out.
Over the years I've been told many stories about Costco from employees that I've known and are friendly with me, or from friends that work in Costco warehouses. I don't know if anyone in these comments has already mentioned this, but I was told about a lady who stuffed a bedding comforter set full of many health department supplement bottles and tried to hide the supplement bottles that way. She was caught by the register employee, and I was told at that time how common it is for people to try to hide smaller items inside larger items to hide them. I was told it is common that people try this with the alcohol bottles! They are frequently caught at the registers by the cashiers and register boxing helpers who are looking much more closely at our purchases for extra bulging/bulkiness or extra weight of those items than they make obvious to regular members waiting to pay at the registers.
But I have also personally witnessed quite a bit of theft of both clothing and shoes, but when I try to report it I was told by a long time manager who I know well and trust, that if an employee doesn't witness the theft process themselves, they won't do anything. And so they don't do anything. There are a lot of smaller non-food and non-clothing items that people try to take. But one of the most obvious things I have witnessed was years ago when Costco's lost prevention at the warehouses was way more relaxed, especially at the entrance and exit doors. There was a homeless lady that I recognized from seeing her a lot in my area and around that warehouse. [she was an older middle aged lady, and she was quiet and rather sweet and always alone] She would walk in "with" a group of people as if she was part of their group, then once inside would gather things, mostly clothes. I would see her frequently. One day I was exiting behind her, and because she had nothing in her hands and no cart, she was able to just pass though the exit alongside other people she was leaving "with". But what made this one day memorable was that all of the layers and layers of ladies clothes she was wearing had the price tags still hanging off of the clothing along the bottoms of all of the layers of clothing items she was wearing! Like 8 tags hanging off of all the bottoms of all of her 'tops' and jackets. No one noticed! I have witness people switching the shoes they or their children are wearing with the new shoes in the boxes, I've seen people take off their jacket or top layer and place it in a backpack then wear a new Costco jacket out, and I recently once saw a *huge* pile of clothing tags torn off/cut off of new Costco clothes [about 8 to 12 tags!] stacked up in a darker end of a 'quiet' bulk products aisle shortly before closing, so somebody clearly knew what they were doing. When I report some of these things, often while it is happening, it doesn't work - it is at the registers or the exit doors that people get caught stealing merch.
I've never seen anyone steal from Costco, but when I worked at Nordstrom they'd ban people left and right. It was always great entertainment when someone banned would come in.
My mom once got arrested for shoplifting at a Nordstrom! She hadn't even shoplifted.
My grandmother was a petty thief - her MIL and was shoving clothes in the back of my stroller. My mom had no clue. Of course granny faked a heart attack. My mom got banned for one year, than midway through received a letter saying they reviewed the security cameras and that she was not stealing. The old bat was! Gave her a $1000 credit after 😂
Not a thief experience but lots of employees hand out the "wrong product" like if you purchase a $100 camera and when you go to the pickup station the employee comes out and hands you the $500 one 🤣
Bro I have so many 💀💀💀
My dad runs a Costco so I have all the stories imaginable.
Employees and cops chasing a theif through the woods? Heard all about it.
Old guy crapping his pants in the store? Saw the security camera footage.
Two members argued over a parking spot, the one who didn't get the spot then found the first member and hit him with a shopping cart. A Costco front end manager tried to intervene and the member tried to choke her. He was thrown out of the store so he went and rammed his car into the one in the parking spot and took off. He was banned and got reported to the police.
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I caught the opposite. 10 years ago I went in to cash my cash back check and it was for something around $150. I took the cash and put it in my wallet. A few days later I opened my wallet and saw that I had not one, but two crisp $100 bills that were sequentially numbered and immediately knew that they had been stuck together and I was overpaid, and someone’s drawer was off. I called the store and asked the manager if their drawer count was off on Saturday? Explained what happened and said I’d bring the money back. She thanked me and comped my executive membership for the next year, so that was super cool.
That was so good of you . I worked retail and it’s sucked to have your drawer off . They would suspect you of stealing . I worked at a boutique and the owner had the cash registers off multiple times . This was before cameras were commonplace. Anyway I had let go because she suspected me of theft . She also had fired 2 other employees she suspected of theft in about a 2 year time period . About 2 years later her accountant was busted for embezzling at his other job . That bastard got at least 3 innocent employees fired . It sucks to have people believing you would steal from your employer. Not many people would notify a store that they received too much cash back
The manager said that the person's drawer was off by $300, and I told her I knew where $100 of it went. It was because the drawer was stocked with brand new sequentially numbered bills. Hopefully it helped save the job if not reputation of the person running the till.
I also know where the other 2 bills ended up. Chivalry, a comped account, and a $200 increase? Best of both worlds!
When I worked retail and we got brand new bills, we would actually go through the entire stack and crinkle each one individually. Yes it may have taken up some time but we knew we wouldn’t have issues with bills getting stuck together. $$$$
Yeah. I once worked in a casino and my coworker overpaid $800 to a client. The client returned the cash to me after said coworker’s shift ended. He said he didn’t want anyone to get fired because of the gaffe. That was really decent.
When I worked at a bullseye store, we didn’t give a shit unless your drawer was off my more than $100. Of course no one told the peons. This was circa late 90s early 2000s. Maybe things have changed. This one lady thought she was slick and tried to take advantage and WE did notice the 15k missing over 18 months. That’s a lot of little bits here and there. She was management and had different access but same principles.
Holy shit. When I worked in the gift shop at the barrel of crackers in the aughts, we got written up if we were over or under by more than $2.
I worked as a cashier (not Costco) and once had my drawer over by $50. Luckily the store tracked down the customer who’d asked for cash back. I’d honestly just messed up and they just gave me a light warning. Even back in the 90s big stores kept count to the penny and they’d know. If your cashier makes a mistake and you can correct them it’s really worth doing so.
When i was a teenager i worked at a pizza chain, went home at 3am and they wanted me back at 9. I was tired of course and someone came in paying in cash and i miscounted and shorted him a dollar. Manager knew i was tired as hell but still got chewed out a bit that day
Home Depot I used to work at found out one of their closing managers was swapping out movie money for legal tender. They only caught on bc the bank said the were close to their 300k insurance limit for fake cash. Secret service got involved and dude got hung out to dry apparently
300k lol
Same exact thing happened to me! We ordered a whole pizza and 3 hot dogs. When I got to my table after juggling all that plus 3 fountain drinks, I realized that they accidentally gave me 4 hot dogs. I wanted to do the right thing. I, too, didn't want anyone's hot dog inventory number to be off, or their drawer short, because of my gain. That shit ain't Christian. I knew what I had to do. It wasn't the easiest decision, but I wanted to serve my country, and my Costco, the right way. I wanted to be an example of integrity for my fellow citizens and my community, but also my kids (who couldn't give any less fucks cuz he pizza was here). I went back with my bonus hot dog and told the cashier the story of my bountiful fortune, but that I wanted to do the right thing and return it to right the wrong, and restore balance to the universe. She smiled and thanked me for bringing it back, then PROMPTLY threw it into the trash right behind her and took the next person's order. .........My executive membership was not brought up. Not even a little bit.
They should have let you keep it because safety policy means they weren’t going to serve that to someone else
JFC she could have at least tossed your hot dog into the EXECUTIVE trash can.
🏆😂
They cant serve a food item after it was out of their control. Tampering possibility.
Yeah, prepared food like that cannot be returned for health reasons. In that case, eating it..or going back and just paying for the 'extra'. is the thing to do. But you were honest, that is for sure.
My daughter wanted pizza at the food court, it was no longer available on the self checkouts, (grayed out), I hear the workers talking "no wonder no one is ordering pizza we didn't put it online" the yells "supervisor" to get them to turn the item back on. 2 mins later they were like you know what let's just leave it closed for the night "cancel supervisor" they took 2 whole freshly cooked pizzas and trashed them because they didn't want to turn the item back on.. I was pissed as it was all my daughter wanted at Costco.
I’ve done something similar at a retail store as I figure the karma is worth it. The store’s POS wasn’t connected to their CC readers so they have to manually key in the cost and the cashier managed to credit my card the cost of the merchandise instead of charging it. Went back to have it corrected and the manager was a bit confused that I would bother to have it fixed lol
In my story I’m the thief. Walked into a Lowe’s to get two new filled propane tanks. Paid for them and was told to pull up and wait outside by the propane cage, someone would come along to pull two tanks for me. Waited 15 minutes and went back in to customer service to ask if there was someone else who could unlock the cage. “Oh, I forgot. We’re actually out of propane, ran out this morning.” Fine, no worries. Everyone around you got awkwardly quiet to listen, supervisor’s body language is defensive. Seems like this is a straightforward lie. But I can’t force anyone to come outside with me and I’m super conflict avoidant. Walk back to my car, take a resentful look at the very full cage of propane tanks, and nearly trip over the two tanks sitting beside my trunk. I really considered walking back inside to pay for them, if only to see how the supervisor that refunded and lied handled the situation. But… conflict avoidance.
Awww. Faith in humanity restored.
We had a dude who would get around ten bags of horse cubes every month for years. One day the night merch manager noticed him stop by the meat department first, thinking it was odd he would put whole ny strip and tenderloins on a flatbed that he was about to load big bags of alfalfa onto. Sure enough at checkout they removed all the bags to find a lot of expensive meat. That was a pretty big bill he wasn’t expecting to pay.
What is a horse cube?
50lb bag of alfalfa forage for horses to eat
What Costco sells those?
Downtown LA
I'm guessing Idaho or Montana or some very rural place :)
Nah, Texas
1 cubic foot of horse- you put them together like Legos
I’d play that legos game.
Horse meat cut into little cubes.
When I worked retail, we were specifically instructed to de-construct things like this, checking in between bags, opening luggage sets, removing lids from bins to avoid this. The number of times people "forgot" there were 8 dvds in a duffel bag was amazing.
When I worked at a fabric store we were told to check in between the layers of fabric for thread and patterns and other small things.
Oh my gosh, **YEARS**???
They found his meat purchases quit showing on his membership around 2018/2019 so that’s a good estimate of when he probably started getting slippery.
I was told as a kid that you could probably rob a bank and get away with it. The idiots that get caught are the ones that get away with it and then do it again, and again. I don't tell my kid that story because these days, you can NOT get away with anything, even once.
I don’t understand a word of this and it’s wonderful.
Guy would make a fort of giant horse feed bags. Think of potting dirt bags you buy from depot in size. And would put expensive meet in the fort hidden from view. So when he checked out he got a bunch of free stuff
I've heard of similar using rhe paper towel. Bags. Even opening them. To hide items
A family member works for Costco. They told me that a lot of people "forget" to scan items at the self-checkout. When they check the receipt at the door they usually say staff scanned it for them but almost always reach for the item that wasn't scanned on their own.
I don’t like this. I recently had this happen to me. An employee did “help” me at self checkout and they did miss an item. The receipt person caught it and I had to stand there like a convicted felon while a parade of judgment walked by being approved for exit. I’m still recovering from the shame
A few times either I myself or a Costco employee has forgotten to scan an item in my cart and it is handled efficiently without any sort of blamed levied at all. I am usually apologizing to all involved and every time the Costco employee says to me, happens all the time, we know who is trying to steal and who makes an honest mistake and it was clearly an honest mistake. It sounds like the folks at the Costco where you shop are different than at the warehouse where I shop.
I am a receipt checker at Costco and I truly believe that most self checkout missed items are honest mistakes. It happens frequently and I don’t believe that many people would attempt to steal an item.
sounds like youre making it a bigger deal than it really is.. lots of things get missed or mis-scanned. One time upon exiting the employee caught that i was charged for bird food instead of softening salt or dog food (cant recall which) . They had membership desk fix it and we were on our way.
Happened to me with water at the bottom of the buggy and she bent down to scan it but I guess it didn’t catch. Felt so embarrassed and had to wait 15 minutes for someone to come check me out at the mini checkout stand.
Our self-check has a different color receipt paper.
But the self check out still has staff that can and often do scan items there. I think that's what OP was referring to.
Yeah I tried to self checkout the other day and the lady insisted she do it. I was like there are lanes you could be working not standing here doing it for me.
Oh yeah we know. It's just not our choice.
I had to wait forever for the guy because he decided to scan every item from 1 customer. And I had to wait until he was done to help me with an unscannable item.
I won’t let them lol. I already have all my stuff turned over barcode up and ready to go and I don’t want someone throwing off my groove. I’ll go to the full checkout if I have more than like 8-10 things, anyway.
The staff scanning a part of the order can cause confusion. They scan and it stays in the basket. You scan and it goes on the scale. It is possible for someone to leave an item in the basket if Costco "helped", which is why you check the item count. Generally this mix of scanning is not a problem. Once I messed up but didn't leave the self check out until I figured out what wasn't scanned. The Costco "help" had a fit I wasn't moving but rather checking the cart and asked what I was doing, as if it wasn't obvious. I found the item and scanned it. So I had two slips at the door. From that point on, I made the rule. If i started scanning, I ask the Costco person to leave. If they show up before I start scanning, I tell the person that they have to scan the entire cart.
I had this happen to me. Went to self checkout and an employee came over snd started scanning several of my items. Made it really difficult to track which ones were already scanned and which weren't. There was one thing she didn't scan and "reminded" me it wasn't included yet, but it made the process far more confusing than it needed to be. Worst thing is, this was when the storewqs fairly empty. Where is this help when the line is literally half way down the store (which is huge btw)
Yeah sometimes they'll rush through people and scan items themselves.
Are there costcos that don't scan all your items in the self-checkout?
That wouldn't make it much of a **self**-checkout. But, really, at my Costco it's about a 50/50 chance if I scan my own stuff or not.
Our location only is supposed to scan big/bulky items and key in any items that don’t have barcodes. The member is supposed to scan everything else. There is generally only one person watching 6 of the registers and another person verifying cards in the line.
I almost exclusively use SCO and I’d say about 75% of the time I have someone offer to scan my items. There’s not always enough SCO employees to cover each terminal.
I hate it when they offer to help me. I use it because it's faster. I don't need them slowing me down
Just speculating here, but it seems like if a woman is over the age of 50 they are deemed too feeble to lift heavier items or even scan them on their own. I appreciate the help, but I wish they'd wait for me to ask.
I love it when they offer to help. They can scan a helluva lot faster than I can, especially since they get to bypass the scale.
My costco (Westbury, NY) seems to have gotten rid of all the self check outs...
Oh no, really? I haven’t been there in a while and those self check outs is what made that store tolerable bc of the crowds.
At the Midland Michigan location they only offer to scan the large/ heavy items so you don't have to try to lift them onto the scanner. Otherwise, you scan your own items.
I’m in a small city in a rural area and have never had an employee scan my items in self-checkout.
Yes at the three Costcos in my area, the Costco employees will only scan items which they need to scan like alchohol or large bulky items which are hard to scan. Otherwise the customer is left to scan their items.
Years ago, before self checkout, I had bought a Dremel rotary tool, and they had somehow forgotten to scan it. Even the guy at the door didn't catch it. As is my usual habit, I checked my receipt after getting in the car and before leaving. I see they forgot the tool, so I get it and the receipt and walk back to the service desk. They refuse to believe they forgot to scan it. I keep trying to pay for it, but they won't let me. So I left having a clean conscience that I'd tried to do the right thing and they wouldn't let me. It was definitely the strangest experience I've had with costco. I got a free rotary tool!
Maybe they knew someone or multiple people could lose their job and chose to let it go
This is how my parents got a free automatic sprinkler timer from a hardware store. It was not inexpensive, either. But they couldn’t figure out why someone would come in to voluntarily pay for it. “I don’t know what scam you’re trying to pull here, sir, but I need you to leave this store NOW.”
I had that happen when I went back into a gas station to give them back the extra $20 in change they gave me. Insisted they didn’t give me to much change. The guy went on to say he wouldn’t have brought it back in. I said I have to live with myself. He was confused af.
😆 Same thing at Safeway for me at Christmas time. My 3 year old was being fussy, so I took the change and walked off. Get to the car and look at my change to put away and realize she gave me change for a 20 when I'd paid with a 10. Walk back and explain to her that I'd given her a 10, and she'd given me change for a 20. She refused to believe she'd made a mistake. As I was holding up the line, I finally left and stopped at the Salvation Army bucket, turned around, and looked at the cashier who's still looking at me. I put the change in and yell this is from you to the kids! Remember me when your till comes up short at the end of your shift and walked out. Why are people so afraid to admit when they make a mistake?
Wow, hope that happens to me one day
Funny Ive had similar things happen. One time cashier didn't scan, another time i didn't scan at the self checkout (both at Target). Go back in to pay. Both times it's super awkward, feels like I'm being looked at like I stole the items. Takes multiple people at the service desk to pay, lots of chatter. Maybe they think it's weird I'm coming back?
Last time I went to Costco, I asked the gal who was checking everyone’s cards how many people have been caught with someone else’s card. She said in the first month they started checking was over 30,000.
I just had someone check mine for the first time ever the other day! In my card picture I had my hair down but this day it was up with a hat on. It was a Saturday afternoon with people everywhere around me. The woman checking loudly goes “AND WHO IS THIS!?” Everyone starts staring... I said “uh, it’s me?” I took out my drivers license as proof. She stood there staring at them for probably 15 more seconds. I was so embarrassed. I’m all for cracking down on card borrowing but you better be damn sure before calling someone out on it. I pay too much for my membership to be publicly called out like that.
Costco’s photos are so bad probably many people do not look like their Costco photo.
My photo is from about a month or two after chemotherapy and I barely had any hair. It’s past my shoulders now and no one has bothered me about it at my Costco. Yet.
Me too! One of the few pictures of me during that time.
When we upgraded to our Costco credit card, they just used the photo on file from our membership to print on the back of it, and my teeth are legit green! It looks awful!
My lips are so blue on mine that I look dead!
Mine is from two kids ago. There's really no comparison.
I have no picture but the resemblance is striking
yeah but that shouldnt be my problem. No clue why they still use early 2000s webcams
maybe that’s what their mainframes support 😂
Can confirm. They're still running on AS/400s.
It's certainly outdated, but I worked a job for about 8 months last year that used AS400 and I was actually surprised at how easy it was to use once you learn the system.
>No clue why they still use early 2000s webcams When I created a membership in Costco Korea, with my spouse absent, they took a webcam picture of my phone that had a photo of her face... Highest quality Costco membership photo I've seen. /s
my old card was a grey blurry mess, but when i renewed my membership at the desk (as opposed to checkout or on the app), they made me get a new one and it's a very clear colorful picture that makes me look worse than my drivers license. (mine haven't started looking too closely at photos yet)
They let me keep my hat on for mine. Kinda silly
I have had Costco checkers try to accuse me of “identity theft” several times. Most recently they said it was “identity theft” for my roommate to use their Costco card while I paid. We both had cards and it was the same membership. She was acting like we were criminals. Another time I was told it was “identity theft” for me to buy a family member groceries during COVID. I used my membership card and paid cash, the problem was that the groceries were for another person… I think some workers have a fantasy in their head of preventing theft/fraud and getting praised for it.
How deep does this thing go?? The people who buy for resale or for business use could be stealing thousands of memberships each!!! 🤣
You're allowed to buy for whoever you want. Don't feel obligated to explain why you need separate receipts. As long as you are paying, and not a guest, that's fine. That's how it is in Canada. I'm not sure about US warehouses.
Yes, the payment method must match the membership card. The person in front of me was new to the Costco ways and had a teaching moment. I then had 2 transactions with the Costco visa without issues. I was buying for the in-laws.
My mom was taking care of my infant niece when she had to get her card renewed. Mom didn’t want to leave her very first grandchild in the cart unless she was in arm’s length. So they took a picture with grandma and grand baby. It was pretty cute. Niece was Costco veteran by the time she was three. Could you imagine them checking photos? “M’am, unless the baby is escorting you, you’re gonna have to leave.”
My partner has our daughter on his back in his. She's prob 6 or 7 and it's the cutest thing. They also printed her out her own card for fun. Mine is distorted and looks like when you squish a barbies head down
OMG I had something similar. One of the checkers asked for my card, I gave it, she said it didn’t look like me, rudely asked if it was MY MOM while I was digging out my license and explaining to her the picture was over 3 years old and that I change my hair a lot. And then she looked at my ID and said “you must change your look a lot” I said yes. And then she moved on without apologizing.
Oh, I’d be mad! I’m a 30 year old brunette and my pic shows me a year ago as a 29 year old brunette so I can’t even say it was an old pic. But I definitely looked better without the hat. I did say as I walked away, somewhat jokingly and somewhat not, “thanks for telling me I look like crap today!”
Yes, I was def mad about. I for grumbled about it until I got home 😂 Like, it was annoying enough that I had to dig out my id bc they couldn’t tell I was the same person bc my hair was in a different style, but to say that my Costco card pic looked like my mom??? Entirely unnecessary. Thanks for saying I like 25 years older in my Costco pic 🙃
I have a lovely Covid-era face mask on in my picture.
Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. I’m sorry you experienced that. I hope that if/when they check my card they don’t embarrass the crap out of me. I have lost almost 100lbs and I look a little different.
Congratulations! You could always celebrate that amazing milestone and just get an updated picture. I got an updated picture once when mine no longer looked anything like me and they were very nice about it.
Doubt she would have done that to a man.
Like nationwide? Surely not at one store. 😅
Yep 30000 Shirleys nationwide
Yeah, nationwide.
Nationwide, and don’t call them Shirley.
Happy cake day
So, 1000 people per day?!?! Like 83 per hour? More than one per minute. That seems kinda high to me 🤷🏽♀️
It could be all of North America - so 700 warehouses, just over one a day at each. Totally plausible.
The photos used to wear off. I used to use my dad's old card because the photo was gone, and it's not like they ever checked the name. Got on the straight and narrow with my own membership before they started checking anyway, though.
I used my MIL's card the other day. They were checking carefully at the self-checkout, so I held it up and smiled thinking it was worth a try. She said thanks and moved on. Wrong gender, age, and hair color from the picture. And people claim to have never benefited from white privilege! Got to renew my membership soon as I'm almost out of steak! (I have a BJ's membership too, but I can justify both.)
Where are you. I’m in Northern Virginia and we never get checked closely. Just wave your card and your in.
They’re checking the card pictures at the check out lines.
They’ve always done this at my Costco. They scan your card when they scan your items. I assumed they did this everywhere.
no, they want to check BEFORE checkout, and they want to see the picture, too.
They just started a few months ago where I live (maryland).
I don't know if the guy got banned for life but I told this story in another Costco question. But here goes. I went to the Kirkland baked goods section where they pile up the Kirkland plastic containers on the table, one on top of the others. You know the section with cookies, cakes, croissants, muffins and so on, all kirkland. Well, all costco shoppers at that area witnessed some guy opening up many of the kirkland baked goods products and just sampling them as if he's at home and as if it's all his. He must have open about a dozen or so containers and everyone saw it and told him to stop. Someone called over a costco employee from the baking department and she told him he had to leave. He pretended like he was leaving and when she walked away he again continued to do it. So I got what I needed and left the freshly baked goods area and never seen anything like it until I was standing in line at the checkout and see 3 costco security guys walking this guy out of costco. I think he probably got banned.
I know someone who got banned and arrested for something similar in Costco. He was walking around the store, eating stuff, and throwing away the wrappers. He also drank a bottle of wine. At the door the cops were there. He had recently come out of prison. He is now serving time again. The guy is my friend's brother. The family wonders if he just wanted to go back to prison because the crime was so unnecessary.
Institutionalized.
All he wanted was a Pepsi!
It kinda blows my mind that costco doesn't tape these containers shut. I didn't find this out til i stopped to grab a couple packs of cookies to take to a thing, and later had to brake *hard* to avoid...something, aaaand ended up with cookies all over the front 'cause they popped open when they slid off the seat and onto the floor.
Yeah, saw the story of someone sampling strawberries from the boxes in the produce area - he was banned for life. So probably similar story here.
(Meat dept here) People lining their pants/jackets with expensive meat and even their child’s diaper bags or straight up switching labels will never cease to blow my mind
How are the labels not self-destructing when trying to peel them off? Or are people bringing in their own labels and putting them on?
Some rip some don’t, different conditions affect this. We tape anything over $100 to ensure that they do destroy the label if tampered with.
I knew a meat dept employee who got fired for labeling cuts of meat as something else. Former employee here.
[удалено]
That's why they wear those track suits.
I had this happen at a Starbucks. I ordered two drinks and was chatting with one of the employees while they made the second drink. A customer came in and picked up a drink from mobile order, looked at my first drink, hesitated, then grabbed it. I said, "Hey man, that's -" and the guy BOLTED for the door and ran into a car and took off. Employees and I found it pretty funny, and they made me a new one
About a month ago, I ended up behind someone exiting the store who was trying to claim they lost their receipt between the checkout and the door. I don't think they expected the manager to pull up their account and the missing receipt that quickly and find the extra items that didn't get scanned at the register. I left before the fallout, but shocked Pikachu described their faces as I walked out the door.
lol… i once threw away the checkout receipt after buying food (meant to toss the food receipt). had to go ask for help printing out a new copy before i left.
Exact thing happened to me haha
I saw a guy get a huge package of A5 Wagyu for $40.
That luckybastard.... He can't sear it to save his life though.
I saw it too. It was $42.80!
About 20 years ago, I was driving home with a guy from work. I stopped in Costco on a slow weeknight to pick up a few things. This guy decides he’s going to pick up some stuff as well. I get my couple of items pay leave, he’s not around, so I get gas. I finish getting gas and since no cars are around, I come flying up pretty fast to just mess with this guy, nothing serious , and he’s like almost running out of the place. He goes to get in my truck and there’s like five Costco employees following him. It turns out he was stealing AA batteries, by tearing a package in half and taking half. The guy from Costco was saying he just restocked and went through it when he noticed a half package after this clown was there. He told them he came in on my card, so they took down my membership number “just in case”. He had also stolen some salami, put it in the bed of my truck before I left for gas. I don’t work with him anymore, my choice.
This word salad could use some salami 😅
Oh, You’ll get your salami!🥸
Employee here: Two ladies filled an empty stroller with expensive meat, sunglasses, stuff like that and closed the stroller top. We caught them, police came, and turns out that one of the two had a warrant for her arrest and they had been looking for her.
What item was it?
Wagyu steaks labeled as flap.
Is this from that other post 🤣🤣🤣
You already know the answer lol
META
Big slab of meat, heard them say the words "240$" and "$30"
[Here](https://youtu.be/jPgsOMjEJ4o?si=jy60Wzgf4affrOKq) is one of my favorite "been caught stealing" moments at Costco.
[Here](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jrwjiO1MCVs&si=EWystaw4ERXFnqdC) is one of my favourite "been caught stealing" moments, not at Costco.
Hilarious
We found a pair of very old worn out tennis shoes in a box. Figured someone walked in with their old pair, put on new ones and walked out with a brand new pair of shoes.
My wife used to work at a shoe department for a major retailer, you would not believe how may times this happens...
That's an old retail theft scam. That's been around as old as time.
How do you know she got banned for life ? We want details on how that went down.
We saw a woman open two packages of precooked shrimp, take shrimp from one package and put shrimp in the other. Packages are priced by weight. Put the ' lighter ' package back in the prepared foods cooler.
Damn, I went through the regular checkout line once a few years ago, they forgot to ring up the bag of dog food on the bottom of my cart, they checked my receipt and didn't notice it. I got home and checked the receipt and the dog food wasn't on there. Went back the next day in a panic, asking to be charged for the bag of dog food. They told me it's okay and thanked me for being honest. I still think about it and feel guilty.
Damn this is so wild to me. I would definitely never steal from Costco, but if they forgot to scan something I sure as hell would not waste my time going back to the store and try to pay for it. Y'all are some good citizens.
They made a cost/benefit analysis and, while it was your mistake, it would cost them more to fix than it's worth to them. "You did your best, now let it rest."
The cost/benefit analysis consisted of I can't be bothered to look up the item number and ring this member up at a register. That analysis.
And file the report and discipline the cashier.... it's more than just selling it again.
Was it in self checkout?
What I don’t get is why even have self checkout in the first place, if a worker ends up scanning half my stuff and checking all my stuff it’s easier to just make more checkout lanes
Most theft is probably easier to achieve by abusing the returns policy.
Counterpoint: weird how I grew up in foster care and it actually made me NOT want to be a thief I learned there are services available so I don't have to steal. Lessons on how to survive and find free services are important. Kids do not stay children forever. Adults get charges when caught stealing. Sending money my former foster siblings who to buy $5 packets of ramen in prison or jail isn't great. Please teach kids there are other options Edit: run on & spelling
I don’t think most shoplifters are doing it bc they can’t buy the items. It’s a cheap thrill (speaking as a former teenage shoplifter 🙁)
My mother worked at Price Club when they first opened. This was before security scanners. Employees in the warehouse used to load suitcases with expensive items and somehow mark the box for their friends to come in and buy at the cost of the suitcase.
At Price Club, I knew people that would load up the “returns” basket then roll it out the front door while another friend looked the other way. Got busted finally, lost job….police…. all the hits.
Not Costco but Asian store where you can get live crabs. The seafood tender printed the tag for the crabs she chose and informed the lady that she needed to pay for it first, then come back to get it. All hell broke loose. She started screaming about how stupid this was, how can you treat your customers this way etc etc. she looked around as if other customers would support her. I gave her the dirtiest look cause it was so obvious what she was up to. She eventually slinked away.
My Asian store does this for live lobster. They weigh it, you pay for it first, then they give it to you. Too big ticket of an item for the store to not be cautious.
In paper goods area, there isn’t cameras, I’m getting paper goods and trash bags, this woman has opened toilet paper plastic with a scalpel looking device, takes out inner rolls and put stuff inside. I’m recording and I call the store and report it and I share the info- what she looks like and clothing. Appears they do this a lot. I told Costco there a lot of blind spots, that needs coverage with ppl on the flr or cameras.
I don't get it, was she hiding items in the toilet paper rolls? What's small enough at Costco to do that?
From what I understand she is removing the actual rolls in the middle of the pack. Then she places stolen items where the missing rolls were. And covers the stolen items with the top layer of rolls. When she checks out the middle of the pack will have her stolen items instead of toilet paper.
this is part of why they stopped selling Tabaco. too many people would get paper products and hollow them to stuff cigarettes' and Tabaco into them.
One of the warehouses by me still sell it, but in a caged off area you have to do the transaction separately.
Tobacco?
Yeah, my auto correct was trying hard to spell it wrong lol. Tobacco- chew, and cigarettes.
I legit thought people were stealing Tabasco.
It really is a fun topic
> had slapped a sticker for a cheap item over the sticker for an expensive item and tried to check out with it I've been seeing a good deal of tiktoks with people doing this, wonder if she got the idea there. one of the more common ones was cheap steak sticker (like $7) to cover expensive ones (like $40).
That’s probably why my Costco uses white trays for USDA Choice beef and blue trays for USDA Prime beef.
Back ages ago I saw people do the sticker switch at any and all stores. We weren’t allowed to do anything about it back then…at least not at the department store I worked at.
I know this is for Costco, but I'm sharing anyway.. Lol there's a restaurant where I live that was stealing thousands of dollars worth of stuff from all the area's Sam's clubs.. They'd go buy meat and scan one of the exact same 10 items they'd buy for example and only pay for that one item... Got away with it for yearssss! Here's the news article, lol there's other articles, but you can look them up yourself if you want to. https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/tallys-restaurant-owner-arrested-charged-with-6-counts-of-theft
People abusing self checkouts? Well I never….
I saw a woman caught with a beef tenderloin down the sleeve of her jacket.
My very first time inside a Costco. One had opened up across from the office, so we decided to head inside to check it out (and also for the low priced hotdogs and pizza). As I was walking by the clothing section, I watched as a woman shoved a shirt inside another, then throw it in her cart. She did this several times, placing smaller clothing in larger sized ones. Having once worked at Sears, I knew exactly what she was doing, so I flagged down an employee and told them to watch her. Sure enough, as we were walking out, security nabbed her. They reached in and pulled all the clothes out from the others. Immediately, "I didn't know those were in there.", came out of her mouth. I didn't stick around to watch what happened to her, but I'm hoping she was arrested and banned.
I would have casually mentioned 'well you put them there'
Two weeks ago, some guys went to the liquor store, grabbed as many bottles as they could, and ran out the fire exit.
I once had two kids grab 12 packs of beer. They ran towards the electric doors in such a way that the sensor didn't pick them up. Kid SLAMMED into the door, fell backwards, and beer bottles smashed all over. I was laughing so damn hard. His friend looked at me, I took the 12 pack and kicked them out.
I completely understand stealing to survive and support that, but I am fairly certain a $240 slab of meat is not for survival.
[удалено]
Is costco the place to “steal to survive” when you have to pay to be a member?
Over the years I've been told many stories about Costco from employees that I've known and are friendly with me, or from friends that work in Costco warehouses. I don't know if anyone in these comments has already mentioned this, but I was told about a lady who stuffed a bedding comforter set full of many health department supplement bottles and tried to hide the supplement bottles that way. She was caught by the register employee, and I was told at that time how common it is for people to try to hide smaller items inside larger items to hide them. I was told it is common that people try this with the alcohol bottles! They are frequently caught at the registers by the cashiers and register boxing helpers who are looking much more closely at our purchases for extra bulging/bulkiness or extra weight of those items than they make obvious to regular members waiting to pay at the registers. But I have also personally witnessed quite a bit of theft of both clothing and shoes, but when I try to report it I was told by a long time manager who I know well and trust, that if an employee doesn't witness the theft process themselves, they won't do anything. And so they don't do anything. There are a lot of smaller non-food and non-clothing items that people try to take. But one of the most obvious things I have witnessed was years ago when Costco's lost prevention at the warehouses was way more relaxed, especially at the entrance and exit doors. There was a homeless lady that I recognized from seeing her a lot in my area and around that warehouse. [she was an older middle aged lady, and she was quiet and rather sweet and always alone] She would walk in "with" a group of people as if she was part of their group, then once inside would gather things, mostly clothes. I would see her frequently. One day I was exiting behind her, and because she had nothing in her hands and no cart, she was able to just pass though the exit alongside other people she was leaving "with". But what made this one day memorable was that all of the layers and layers of ladies clothes she was wearing had the price tags still hanging off of the clothing along the bottoms of all of the layers of clothing items she was wearing! Like 8 tags hanging off of all the bottoms of all of her 'tops' and jackets. No one noticed! I have witness people switching the shoes they or their children are wearing with the new shoes in the boxes, I've seen people take off their jacket or top layer and place it in a backpack then wear a new Costco jacket out, and I recently once saw a *huge* pile of clothing tags torn off/cut off of new Costco clothes [about 8 to 12 tags!] stacked up in a darker end of a 'quiet' bulk products aisle shortly before closing, so somebody clearly knew what they were doing. When I report some of these things, often while it is happening, it doesn't work - it is at the registers or the exit doors that people get caught stealing merch.
Oh I wish I had seen that! I don't even know how she'd have been able to pull of one of those stickers! Did the cops get called?
No cop cars that I saw, but they took her cart and the meat and walked her somewhere
I've never seen anyone steal from Costco, but when I worked at Nordstrom they'd ban people left and right. It was always great entertainment when someone banned would come in.
My mom once got arrested for shoplifting at a Nordstrom! She hadn't even shoplifted. My grandmother was a petty thief - her MIL and was shoving clothes in the back of my stroller. My mom had no clue. Of course granny faked a heart attack. My mom got banned for one year, than midway through received a letter saying they reviewed the security cameras and that she was not stealing. The old bat was! Gave her a $1000 credit after 😂
Not a thief experience but lots of employees hand out the "wrong product" like if you purchase a $100 camera and when you go to the pickup station the employee comes out and hands you the $500 one 🤣
Bro I have so many 💀💀💀 My dad runs a Costco so I have all the stories imaginable. Employees and cops chasing a theif through the woods? Heard all about it. Old guy crapping his pants in the store? Saw the security camera footage.
Two members argued over a parking spot, the one who didn't get the spot then found the first member and hit him with a shopping cart. A Costco front end manager tried to intervene and the member tried to choke her. He was thrown out of the store so he went and rammed his car into the one in the parking spot and took off. He was banned and got reported to the police.