The trickery of a customer, who swapped labels to steal more than 200 francs worth of goods, brought him before the judge. ST. GALLEN – He had a 75 cent rug and a large 2 franc cushion in his cart (or so the label said), but once he got to the DIY checkout he was caught red-handed.
As reported in 20 Minuten, the trick played by a 33-year-old man during a trip to Ikea in St. Gallen, who tried to reverse the price labels of some products, ended very badly. So a 79.90-franc carpet ended up with the label of a 75-cent cup and a 129-franc cushion with that of a 2-franc storage box lid.
The amount of the offense against Ikea, according to the penal ordinance, is 206.15 francs.
The man was caught in the act by a random check that, as they say, fell right on him.
The man ended up in court and was found guilty of falsifying documents and received a fine of 30 daily installments of 150 francs (for a total of 4,500 francs) suspended for a probationary period of two years. In addition to this, he was fined 900 francs and had to pay 486 francs in taxes and legal costs.
When asked about this, Ikea remained tight-lipped. In fact, the company does not usually disclose information about complaints made or incidents that have occurred near the automatic checkouts.
“Random checks are carried out regularly,” the Swedish giant reiterates, ”the self-checkout areas are equipped with so-called exit barriers, which allow passage only after the receipt has been read correctly.”
“Naturally, our employees are always available to answer our customers’ questions and provide them with prompt support, even at the automatic checkouts,” Ikea concludes.
