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SAP VP Arrested In False Barcode Scheme
redletterdave writes "With barcode scanning being so commonplace, nothing seemed out of the ordinary when Thomas Langenbach, the vice president of SAP, was found scanning boxes upon boxes of Lego toys before purchasing them. Little did anyone know, the 47-year-old Silicon Valley executive was actually engaged in a giant scam. Langenbach would visit several Target stores and cover the store's barcodes with his own, so when he would bring the boxes up to the register, Langenbach would pay a heavily-discounted price. For example, this tag swapping allowed him to buy a Millennium Falcon box of Legos worth $279 for just $49. Once he bought the discounted Lego boxes, the SAP executive would take to eBay (under the name 'tomsbrickyard') and sell the items. Langenbach reportedly sold more than 2,000 items on eBay, raking in about $30,000. He was finally caught by Target security on May 8, and he was arraigned on Tuesday on four counts of burglary."
The drones at most of these stores don't care; I should know I use to be one and I was the "odd man out" that would notice these things and say something. A lot of times as a cashier speed (items per hour) matters more than accuracy. Your bonus can depend on it, so doing any kind of "checks" hurts a lot.
K Man
As this article illustrates, the root of kleptomania is a desire for revenge upon a world that the person feels has treated them unfairly.
The article you linked to says absolutely nothing of the sort. In fact, citing the DSM, it says the following about diagnosing kleptomania: "The theft is not due to anger, revenge, delusions, hallucinations or impaired judgment (dementia, mental retardation, alcohol intoxication, drug intoxication)."
So I'm not sure what you were reading.
Just because you sold your soul to the devil that needn't make you a teetotaler. --The Devil and Daniel Webster
The description isn't a novel.
Slap a barcode for a $39.95 lego-boat on a $129.95 larger lego-ship and the scanner will say something like "lego boat".
I don't know how you expect a bored cashier at minimum wage to catch that.
... that those tribesmen 2000 years ago would have been jewish , right? So where does the christian bashing come into it?
"If you want to know why readership has declined significantly, here is an example."
Yeah right, because most of /. 's readership are churchgoing evangelists.
Not.
Get over yourself.
This guy wasn't an executive VP, and it wasn't at SAP Global. His official title was "Vice President, SAP Integration & Certification Center (ICC) at SAP Labs, LLC". So he was a VP of a division of an SAP subsidiary.
Welcome to the world of title inflation.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock