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Lawyer Carrie Jernigan wanted people to be more understanding of this, especially in regards to their shopping habits.
Jernigan has over 1 million followers on TikTok, where she responds to trends and provides invaluable information about laws and legal issues that citizens often are not aware they could become the victim of.
In one of her latest series of videos, Jernigan cautioned viewers against using the self-checkout lane because of the chances of getting into trouble someday.
In the video, Jernigan explained that most people do not go into the store with the intention of stealing something.
But if they utilize the checkout lane and accidentally forget to scan and pay for something, like a small item in the bottom of the cart or a case of water they forgot about on the lower shelf, they could face serious criminal charges.
Jernigan explained:
"'Theft By Mistake' cases, these are the people that I genuinely believe just forgot to scan an item. It's usually something that was on the bottom rack of the cart or, say, a DVD that has slipped under a purse. Then when they're walking out, Asset Protection stops them."
"When self-checkout first started, I saw where they (Asset Protection) let almost all of these people either scan and pay for the item, or just let them go but took the item they did not pay for."
"Now, these big box stores are not going to spend their time and resources on deciding if you stole it on purpose or if it was a mistake."
"They have lost all sympathy and they are just taking a 'tell it to the Judge' approach."
You can watch the video here:
Some TikTokers were shocked by this information.
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Others were, quite frankly, stressed.
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Some could confirm from personal experience this was a serious problem.
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Jernigan is likely correct most people who accidentally take an item from the store genuinely forgot or missed it while checking out and would otherwise gladly pay for it.
But now, she's unlocked a new fear in some shoppers, as their genuine mistake could lead to a seriously life-changing accusation.