Michigan woman arrested for failing to scan all items at Walmart

A Michigan woman has been charged with stealing items from Walmart without scanning all items at the checkout.

Police said TeddyJo Marie Fliam, 34, was using a self-checkout at Alpena County Walmart when a loss prevention officer noticed she didn’t scan all of her items. Fox 2 reported that Fliam was upset when she left the store when she was confronted by Loss Prevention personnel, and she denied that she was skipping her items.

The incident prompted the store to review surveillance footage. This indicated that Fliam had stolen more than $1,000 of merchandise from Walmart since his April due to not scanning the merchandise.

Fliam was arrested last month at his home in Alpena and charged with first-degree retail fraud.

Alpena County Walmart’s loss prevention team recently began cracking down on self-checkout thefts. Michigan State Police have documented two similar incidents in which people were arrested after exchanging barcodes during item checkout.

Walmart used artificial intelligence to crack down on self-checkout theft in 2019, using cameras to ensure every item in a bag was scanned.

Called internally Missed Scan Detection, the system monitors both automated and manned checkout stations and reports potential scan omissions to agents who can investigate.

A Walmart spokesperson said at the time, “Walmart is truly investing in keeping our customers and employees safe.” We have invested over $500 million in deterrence and we continue to invest in people, programs and technology to keep our stores and communities safe.”