[They then purchase goods at a self-chosen discount via the self-check lanes, according to NOPD]
Sometimes, there are people watching the self-checkouts, live, in WM.
I witnessed a Latino girl/woman (maybe about 25). She tried scanning not all of her products at self-checkout. She was maybe 15-20 feet away from me at the time. I can still remember what checkout she was at and in what store.
There were 2 off-duty policemen, IN UNIFORM, standing no more than 10-15 feet from her. They called down, she was arrested and handcuffed in front of me - she didn’t make it but about 10 feet from the checkout.
Back in 1985 in North Dakota a man was stealing VCRs at the local Target. He would place a 50 pound bag of dog food on the bottom of the cart, put a VCR on the bag, then place another bag of dog food on top of the VCR.
After stealing three or four VCRs store security caught on and finally caught him trying to steal a fourth VCR.