An elderly woman "missed scanning" a piece of pork, and the supermarket "fined" her 20,000 yuan.

[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
 
[2] In recent years, self-checkout in supermarkets has become increasingly common. Many people are still not used to this method of tallying items and scanning them for payment, always worrying about missing or double-scanning something, which could lead to unclear troubles.

 

Recently in Ningbo, Zhejiang, an elderly woman was shopping at a supermarket and, while using self-checkout, failed to scan a piece of pork worth 75 yuan, resulting in a 20,000 yuan fine imposed by the supermarket.
 
Case review
The elderly woman, now in her sixties, was about to leave after finishing her shopping that day when she was stopped by supermarket staff, who discovered that she had a piece of local pork worth 75 yuan that had not been scanned.

 

Afterwards, the store staff, claiming that the elderly person had not paid for all the goods, sought to impose a fine of 20,000 yuan on him. Frightened and with no other option, the elderly person transferred all the more than 3,000 yuan in his mobile phone to the staff member.
Netizens said that the family only found out about the incident when the elderly person asked for money to pay the remaining fine, which shocked the whole family and led them to angrily report it to the police.

It is understood that the staff at the time asked the elderly person to "compensate a little more" for the supermarket's merchandise losses and sought the consent of the party involved. The past video surveillance provided by the supermarket to the police shows that this elderly person, when paying at the self-checkout machine, was suspected of "missing scans" on more than one occasion, which had already attracted the attention of the supermarket staff.

Currently, local police have investigated and handled the matter. The supermarket has issued a letter of understanding and refunded the fine. The elderly person and their family will no longer pursue the supermarket's excessive fine.
 
 
Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China "
Article 264
Whoever steals public or private property in a relatively large amount, or commits theft multiple times, burglary, theft with a weapon, or pickpocketing, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined; if the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have property confiscated.
 
 
Public Security Administration Punishments Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 49
Whoever steals, swindles, seizes by force, robs, extorts, or intentionally damages public or private property shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days and may, in addition, be fined not more than 500 yuan; if the circumstances are relatively serious, he shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days and may, in addition, be fined not more than 1,000 yuan.

 
 

 
[1] The author's perspective
According to the supermarket, the elderly person had repeatedly “failed to scan” items. Although the amounts were small, this still suggests a suspicion of theft. If the amount stolen is relatively large or the theft is repeated, criminal liability may apply. Even if it does not violate the Criminal Law, it still violates the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, and the elderly person may be detained or fined. It is worth noting, however, that such penalties should be imposed by administrative authorities, not by the supermarket. The supermarket’s act of having the elderly person transfer a 20,000 yuan “fine” to an employee’s personal account is itself unlawful.
 
We often see signs in stores that say “steal one, pay ten times the price.” In fact, this kind of penalty has no legal basis and serves more as a deterrent. Everyone knows that theft is illegal, but people always harbor a false hope that they can get away with it, forgetting that if you do not want others to know, you had better not do it yourself. Remember, the net of justice is wide, and though its mesh may be coarse, it lets nothing through.