Woman Warns Others To Check Self-Checkout Machines For Extra Items

Many grocery stores across the country rely on self-checkout machines, and some places now don't even have cashiers.

Christy Phillippe went to pick up a few things at the store and was in a hurry checking out her groceries.

When Phillippe saw how much she had to pay at the self-checkout, she knew something wasn’t right.

"I knew, when it rang up, it was $109,” said Phillippe. “In my mind, I was like, that's a lot for just what I got. But I was in a hurry so I paid it."

As she was leaving the store, she decided to check her receipt to see what had caused the large bill.

"I looked at my receipt, and at the top of the receipt, there were probably like 15 items that were not mine,” said Phillippe. “And I was like, what is going on?"

Phillippe says store employees told her this has been happening more often to shoppers in Green Country.

"People go and they scan their items, and then they just walk out without paying, and then the next person that comes up to the self checkout doesn't realize that those items are there, and so they wind up paying for the person's items that was there before them," said Phillippe.

She says now she takes the extra time to check and see if the machine is cleared before she starts ringing her items up.

"Make sure there are no items on there before you start scanning, because that seems to be something,” Phillippe said. “What people will do, they'll just scan, scan, scan, and walk out, and then those items are still there. So make sure those items are not there before you start scanning your own stuff."

She says she is lucky she thought to look at her receipt before she left the store and urges others to do the same.

"I would just say too, check your receipt before you get out of the store,” said Phillippe. “Because if I hadn't checked my receipt, there would have been no way to prove to the store that that stuff wasn't mine.”

Phillippe says the store did give her money back.

She warns people who use self-check outs, to always check to make sure no one else has scanned anything first.