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.

 

[3] Recently, an elderly woman in Ningbo, Zhejiang, "missed scanning" a piece of pork worth 75 yuan during self-checkout at a supermarket and was fined 20,000 yuan by the store.
 
Case review
[4] The woman, in her 60s, was about to leave after shopping that day when she was stopped by supermarket staff. They discovered she had not scanned a piece of local pork worth 75 yuan.

 

[5] Subsequently, the store staff fined her 20,000 yuan on the grounds that she had not paid for all the items. The elderly woman was frightened and, in desperation, transferred over 3,000 yuan from her phone to the staff.
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 at the time, the staff asked the elderly person to "compensate a bit more" for the supermarket's inventory losses and obtained the person's consent. Surveillance footage provided by the supermarket to the police showed that the elderly person had been suspected of "missing scans" more than once when paying at the self-checkout machine, which had already drawn the attention of 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 commits theft, fraud, forcible seizure, robbery, extortion, or intentional destruction of public or private property shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days and may also be fined not more than 500 yuan; if the circumstances are relatively serious, they shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days and may also be fined not more than 1,000 yuan.

 
 

 
[1] The author's perspective
According to the supermarket, the elderly person had repeatedly "missed scanning" items. Although the amounts were small, it still indicated suspicion of theft. If the amount stolen is large or theft occurs repeatedly, criminal liability may be incurred. Even if it does not violate the Criminal Law, it violates the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, and the elderly person could be detained or fined. However, it is worth noting that such punishment should be carried out by administrative authorities, not the supermarket. The supermarket's demand that the elderly person transfer 20,000 yuan as a "fine" to an employee's personal account is actually illegal.
 
We often see signs in stores that say "Steal one, pay ten times," but in fact, such punishment has no legal basis and serves more as a deterrent. Everyone knows theft is illegal, but many still harbor a侥幸心理 (fluke mentality), thinking they can get away with it, forgetting that if you don't want others to know, you must not do it. Remember, the net of justice is vast, and nothing escapes it.