I don't know about you, but I love the convenience of self-checkout lines. I don't have to speak to anyone in person, and generally, they're made to make getting out of a store go a little faster. However, according to one lawyer on TikTok, you should avoid them, and she suggests that it opens people up to being accused of a crime they didn’t commit.
Lawyer Carrie Jernigan has over 1.2 million followers, and counting, on TikTok and her profile is full of videos sharing legal advice.
In a recent video, Carrie shared the reasons that we need to avoid self-checkout, for our own safety. According to Carrie, it gives stores the chance to use security footage to accuse customers of stealing.
Jernigan explained, “As a criminal defense attorney, I advise most people to steer clear of self-checkout.” She also said there are “three groups” of people who typically get charged with theft for using self-checkout.
She says, first are individuals who use the machines “with the intent to steal”. Second, are the individuals who get busted for “theft-by-mistake,” people that, “just forgot to scan an item.” She says that even if it was truly an innocent mistake, people may still be charged “because … the big-box stores aren’t going to spend their time and resources trying to figure out if you did it on purpose.”
Lastly, there are the people who are “truly innocent” but still get charged. She says that these people don’t get charged while in the store, but it happens later after a store’s inventory “comes up short.”
The lawyer further explains that “they will begin watching hours of video to see the last person who checked out with the Mario Lego set because they’re 2 short or an Xbox game. And, for some reason, they pinpoint that they think you did it.”
Stores do not require a lot of evidence to get a warrant for someone’s arrest, according to Carrie, you could face up to a year in jail, and “you have to spend thousands of dollars hiring a lawyer and we have to go through grainy video footage to try to determine what all you bought that day.”
If you insist on continuing to use the self-checkout machines, Carrie also advises using a credit card, especially for big purchases, and hanging on to your receipts.