A coupon scam so slick it'll leave you questioning every deal you've ever seen. Picture this. A BJ's employee and a club member teamed up to turn thousands of dollars in merchandise into a series of $40 checkouts. How, you ask? With a stack of coupons and some serious insider moves, this duo pulled off the ultimate shopping hack, swiping over $66,000. Let's dive into this wild scheme. Here's what happened next. 553 K 553 pick up truck. How you doing? Hello. Hi. How are you? So, I have a question for you. So, we tried to get a detective here today, but they sent an officer. So, we have a $66,000. It has to go through an officer. I have to take the initial report and if a sergeant looks at the case and feels it needs to go to a detective then um it'll be a sign. So I have a question for you. We we have all the data but we're going to interview the team member tomorrow cuz we need her to admit collusion because she's working with a specific member that we want to file charges for. But we need to talk to the team member first. She's in tomorrow but I want to coordinate it where Yeah. Uh the only thing I've had a case like this where they tried to coordinate it with me specifically and we got so busy that day that we had like a shooting over here that there was no way I can be there and they interviewed that person without me. So I I don't know how you guys it's just hard to say yes I can be here at a certain time or no I can't. That's the only that's the only thing I have with you know the only issue I have with that. But here's my question. The person's not here now. No. Well, that's why we wanted you to come like we have everything. Um although the $66,000 is an accumulation since November, we only have archive video starting March 3rd. But my question, it's it's a complete felony already. Like that surpassed that. Even what we have on video versus the total case file. The total case file is like 67,000. Um but we can prove like probably half of that because we only have archive till March. Yeah. I mean, um, well, you know, I have to obviously look at the video and if, you know, everything adds up and it goes to the state attorney and they feel like this is a solid enough case, they would, you know, go through. You guys would arrest if she admits already tomorrow anyway. Well, the the thing is like I have to be able to read her her Miranda words. I just can't. No, no, I get that all we have all the paper like this is a significant I might not I'm going to tell you I might not arrest it might not even be me but I might not arrest that person right away and I might file charges attorney really for that much. [Music] Well, like I said, I have to take the initial report and if this if we can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was this person, a detective probably has to take a a deeper dive into it cuz I can only do so much. So, what do you recommend? Because I am looking for an arrest tomorrow. I mean, I that's not really that's not up to you. No, but I mean, yeah, you you know BJ's is the the victim and you guys want to press charges and um I have to look at the video. I have to look at you know all the evidence and write the initial report and the sergeant has to look at it and then we go from there. Okay. Would you recommend the place like look at the information now or call you guys tomorrow when cuz I have to just the only thing is like you see how long it took me to get it kind of took me a while to get here today. Um number one raising canes is is insane over there. Um so it took me 20 minutes just to get in here. Um the only thing about waiting tomorrow is if she's here and we can't get here. Wow. That's that's the only thing I worry about cuz it happened to me with Walmart. he was there and they they didn't read him his Miranda rights, you know, and he wrote some sort of like weird letter um that was very vague. So, I don't know what, you know, it went to the state attorney. I just don't know what's going to happen with it because I wasn't there. So, you have to be a part of the interview. I mean, I have to be able to read her her Miranda rights. Yeah. And and hear her have her confess it to me on body count. Oh, okay. So, here's the thing. She's here at 9:00. I I I'm anticipating you guys aren't as crazy during the morning. I I don't know. I can't make a promise. Like I can do the initial report and then, you know, I can we can try to be here tomorrow for the interview or you it it's really it's up to you. It's whatever you guys want to do or feel comfortable with. I mean, well, I'll have everything lined up for you. Yeah. I would need copies. I need That's We have all We have all of it. We have all the receipts. We have all the videos. We have what we have. And I can break it down for you when it started, what the amount is that we have to deal with. Let me just show you. All the receipts have similar readings, right? So there is a specific number that's been coming here and going to a specific cashier. He goes particularly to selfch checkout and she's discounting all his purchases. So, keep in mind this is a $1,200 sale. Mhm. And the member is paying that amount. Mhm. So, all these coupons, you see these overrides? Mhm. They're overridden by that specific cashier and he only goes to her. She's We've looked at his membership. We looked at his sales. All of these are manually entered. So, she's discounting that. So, she doesn't need a manager. take that kind of amount of money. She doesn't because she's a selfch checkckout attendant and those cards to override them at selfch checkckout she has access to because BJ should look at that policy. Yeah. Okay. So, how do we So, how do you know it's that specific cashier at that at that specific moment? We we pulled all the videos for all these you want to watch here. And then who's the member? Do you have their information? Yes, I do. Yeah. This would probably honestly would probably have to go to a detective. So, um it's just the amount of money. But even if she when she if you're there, if you if you're there and or somebody an officer is there and she admits to it, then at that point, can you still make an arrest if you do them? As long as everything I mean, yeah, probably. Yeah. So, again, the the the But I can't promise you someone can be here when you want us to be here. No, I I get that. So this is the most recent one which is yesterday. Who am I looking at? So that's that's the cashier. Which lady? This one. And that's the member of the guy in the blue. Correct. Why is your thing all of a sudden? I put it in full screen. Just Just leave it there. It blank. Why is it pixelating all of a sudden? Maybe I need to play on holding for membership. Zero. Oh my god. Yeah, I don't know why your stuff's pixelated. So that's her. This is the member. So that's the one and only member that she does for correct. And you guys have looked through all the transactions. There's a pattern. It's him and her since November. And she does the exact same thing cuz all the receipts show the same thing. And at the end of the night, does someone have to tally up the coupons or anything like that? So, we no longer actually tally up the coupons. They just go automatically into a bag. It doesn't get it doesn't get um So, it doesn't have to match against our tank goes back to white Mercedes convertible out of Palm Beach. We don't do a physical validation. And does she have a sign in number to a register? Correct. And that's her number. 549. So in certain cases, like for this example, she's on a register, right? But in some cases, majority of the time, it's at selfch checkckout, which has a different What day is this? Yesterday. Yesterday. This is just the most recent one. And then where's yesterday's paper? Right here. So does she actually have a paper coupon? Like does he hand her paper coupons or how do you You'll see. So what he does, he hands her coupons on the corner there. She doesn't even look at them and she just keys in. You'll see her keying in which you'll see when when you see her key it in. This is what you're seeing is all this amount. She just can put any amount pretty much. And she's That's crazy that the And she's overriding it herself cuz you see this manager override. She's a manager. No. Does every employee have access to do that? A manager override any cashier, but their ID is tied to themselves only holding for membership. So every single time, whether it's selfch checkckout or at a register, that's exactly what you see. It's the exact same video that you you see. It's just in different spots. She's just keying it in. So like right now, right, you see how he's handing her coupons. Look at her typing it in. Right? When you see her typing in and scan, the scan is the override. So, she's just keying in coupons for the guy. What is she scanning though? Oh, like card to do the override. So, you see how she just continuously key key key scan. Each time she's keying and scanning, she's overriding and manually entering in a coupon. He puts a pile of coupons there, but she doesn't even look at them. How come this wasn't caught any sooner? So, we've determined an issue with our exception based reporting. It's a technical thing where it's how what tender type she used. Instead of it being vendor coupon, she used a type B and it's like a tend it's like just a a slight adjustment on the accession based reporting that it didn't catch it. So, like a some sort of glitch. It It wasn't a glitch. It's how we created the report where we just needed to make one minor adjustment to put it as a like coupon as a tender. We just put coupon usage but we didn't put it as a tender and how she process it is as a tender. So that's why how was this caught? So what finance does because we send all this data that goes to the POS gets validated by finance at the corporate office. So, type B coupons are coupons that are from BJ's Wholesale Club. So, those little books, no, it's a it's a special type. It's not the ones in the books. So, um what those are is um so finance reconciles these because these come from DJs. It's a separate type of coupon. They're not in the book. They when they're like, "Wait a minute. How can Boy and Beach have like a thousand of these $1,000 in a week, more than a thousand worth of these type coupons and we send them the coupons. So they reconcile it. So when they looked at that, they saw a pattern every single week. This is the only club that has a significant amount of type B coupons and she's not removing any money out of the registry. Then what was that thing? Congress. Yep. But it's him every hug and her. Do you guys have another chair? I need to sit down. I need to write your information. Officers learned the employee wasn't due back until the next day. So, they set a plan ready to catch her in the act. The plan was simple. Wait and watch. Hello. Hello. Is there a room that we can um alone? Yeah. Yeah. You guys, this is the coupon from the pouch from today. Lindsay used to Yeah. You guys need I'll just No, I didn't think cuz you were talking. I'm detective lighter at the point B police department. How are you? My partner Rivera. So before we get started, I'm just going to read you your Miranda rights. Okay. I'm required to warn you before you make any statement that you have the following constitutional rights. You have the right to remain silent, not to answer any questions. Any statements you make must be freely and voluntarily given. You have the right to the presence and representation of lawyer of your choice before making any statements and during any question. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you're entitled to the presence and representation of courting lawyer before you make any statement and during the question. If at any time during this interview you do not wish to answer any questions, you are privileged to remain silent. You can make no threats or promises to induce you to make a statement. This must be of your own free will. Any statement can and will be used against you in the court of law. Understand those. You have any questions over any of them? Is that working? Thank you. And you're employed here at BJS, correct? Yes. About how long have you been working here? Almost two years. Okay. And what is your position? You primarily done here at PJ. Um I do cashering and then I also do sub check out. Okay. And what does that entail? Subch checkout is just like um when they want to do their calls. We haven't heard anything. What are your responsibilities with that? Um just customers headed over to Okay. All right. Do you know why we're here today? Yes. Okay. Can in your own words explain to me why we're here. Um, I'm basically gonna be charged for fraud or assisting with fraud. Okay. Why do you feel that? Why do you think that? Um, because I helped someone basically steal from DJs. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Can you explain to me in greater detail how this is like how long has this been going on? Like when the start? I would say it started last year around Novemberish. The guy approached me and asked me if I could input his coupons and I said, "Okay. I didn't think it would be a reoccurring thing, but it ended up being thing. And personally, I didn't know how to approach my manager's tax for help to ensure this customer was selling, but Okay. So, you said back in November. Yeah. I mean, around that time. I'm not 100% sure what day. Okay. 2022. Yes. And where were you at? I mean, the the person, what's his name? I don't even know his name. You don't know his name? No. What does he look like? Um, white male. Um, say around maybe his Okay. Um, you cut out India. And where were you at? Okay. And how does this happen? How does he come up to you? What did Well, at first like this, my coupons are not going through like I need help. So, I just did them because that's what I'm used to. Like if someone has a problem with the coupon, I make sure the coupon they have the actual physical item and then I put input the coupon. Okay. And so what happened with this instance? That the first one back in November. Um I just inputed his coupons and made sure he had the correct items and he just told me the prices of what how many coupons he had. Okay. So he told you the prices? Yes. So what type of coupon were you like were they paper coupons you were scanning in or how did you do it? Um well for some check out when we do over um like physical overrides anything over $10, we have to like make sure that they have the coupon. We scan our override card and put it in. Okay. And how many coupons is a person allowed to use? I mean, I I was told they can use as long as they have the physical item and the amount that you can put in. Okay. So, as long as they have the item, they can use how many coupons per item? Yes. It's one item per It's one coupon per item. Okay. And so, what So, he would just tell you how many to put in? He would tell me like how much to put in like $90, $50. Okay. And did you verify that all the product was there and he had each coupon for each product? I would just I would look just for the c the product and the coupon. I didn't see how many coupons he was given. You didn't verify? No. Okay. Did you know like that what you were doing was wrong? I did. I just didn't know how to approach it. Okay. did. So, how did he know when you were working to come in? He would sometimes he would walk in the front door and sometimes I'd be at the front door. So, then he would wait until I was back at my uh by where I was. If not, then he would be waiting by the bathroom. Okay. Did he ever ask you for your schedule to know what days of the weeks you were here? No. Okay. Did you ever communicate with them outside of here? No. I don't know who he is to be honest with you. Okay. You never got curious and looked them up in your membership? You never looked at his membership card to see who he was? Okay. Um, how many times do you think you've done this? Like how often does this occur? Um, I mean when I'm working it's like at least two or three times. Two or three times a day. Like when I'm working. So he'll come in three times a day. Yes. I'm at like different separate times. Okay. And what does he say to you when you're doing this? He just says, "Hello, I'm ready for my coupons." Okay. And he's never once like offered you anything in exchange. No. Never. Did he ever give you any type of gift in exchange? Just saying, "Hey, thanks for always helping me out." Did [Music] he ever? I mean, I'm trying to understand like how much how did he like know if he would be willing to do this each and every time? I guess I just never really questioned him about it. So, I just he always just came up to me. And what kind of products does he buy? Medicine, like medical like like allergy medicine, anything like that. And is it always the same type of products? Yes. Does he say what he's doing with these products? I think he resells them. I'm pretty sure he does. What makes you think that? Um I mean sometimes he when I'm on a register he does tax exempt and sometimes tax exempt they resell the product that they buy here. Okay. If not it's for his own personal use for like his store or something like that. Okay. And tax exempt. What does he do to do tax exempt? Um it's just that he doesn't have to pay tax on stuff that he buys. But does he show you something to do that? No, it's already on his card. Okay. For his membership card, he has his membership card. Okay. And what do you have to do to get a tax exempt? I I override it. I have to override the tax. And do you override it? Yes, sometimes, but not all the time. Okay. But he shows you on his card that he's text. Well, when you scan it, it will show you wrong that. Okay. And that what causes that to pop up is what I'm trying to understand is how is it entered in the system that he Yes. In his system underneath his membership there's like a certain certificate that they have to bring in that they have to put in for him to have taxes. Okay. Did he ever tell you he was reselling this stuff? Not that I know of. No. You don't recall him telling you what he did with the products? And what did you think when he was coming in two three times a day? I just that's what I thought like he was reselling. So I was like, "Okay." Cuz I've seen I see people here multiple times a day all the time. And do you know like he never asked you what days you work? No. Okay. But I have literally like a consistent schedule. So I'm here. You work the same days each week. Okay. What days are those? Saturday. Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Okay. I mean Sunday. Sunday, Tuesday. I'm off Saturday for school. Okay. So, walk me through exactly what took place today. Today? Yeah, this morning. Um, I mean, he came in, I know he went to membership to return something and then maybe 20 minutes later, he came back to my line and I just did what I do. Okay. Step by step, like I don't understand any of it. He um I scan his card and then I scan all of his items and then when I'm done with that, he just tells me the prices of his coupons that he has and then I input them. Okay. So, you don't verify that the amount he's telling you matches what the product is? No. Okay. And so, how much was his total today? [Music] Like $40. Okay. But how much was it before the override keys? Thousand something. Okay. Did that seem a little bit? It does. Yes. Okay. I mean, did you realize it was wrong? Yes. Okay. And does he know it's wrong? Has he ever said anything to you about it? No. He's never made any acknowledgement about it? No. Okay. And so you say the amounts he does, is it usually around $1,000 or does it vary or how? Yeah, it's around,000. Okay. So if he comes in three times a day, it's each time it's around $1,000. Okay. Do you know where he's getting the coupons? I mean, the coupons that he has are mostly BJ's coupons from like the coupon book. Okay. And what does that mean if they're BJ's coupons? Like it's from the corporation. The corporation like gives out the coupons. Okay. All right. And can it can you use that many coupons? Um when you scan them? No. If you if you scan them, it will limit you to like how many items you have. Like if he has three items and he tries to scan four coupons and that fourth coupon. Okay. And what happens then? So say you try to scan the fourth. What do you have to do to make if you wanted to input that? I have to um just put it in manually. And how do you do that? Um if he's on selfch checkout, then I just go all the way to the end and I scan it as I scan my override card and then I put in the price and then Okay. It'll come off as a coupon. Okay. And so like today when you do you did an override, correct? And the amount you put in, he told you the amount to put in. Okay. All right. Um [Music] But I know you said when you told him that you were just scared, you didn't know what to do. He never threatened you or anything. You just I just felt uncomfortable. You felt uncomfortable. But when he came to your register, you pretty much know what you were going to do. Yeah. Cuz it's just like a routine. It's routine. Okay. Today when you were he was at your register and he's passing you the the coupons. Were you just putting the numbers in this time? He wasn't telling you today though, right? Like you just knew what how much to take off of the No, he tells me the t like how many like he'll tell me like $90, $60. So what is he doing today on the video? He's he Yeah, like the stacks of And then what is he saying? Yes. Tell me tell me how he does. Yeah, that's what he does. He just stacks them and he goes 904 or whatever. And what were the coupons for? Like a dollar off. Yeah, a dollar. Sometimes they're $7, $8. Okay. But he was telling you today what to put in. Yeah. Okay. And does he tell you every time what to put in? Yes. Do you take the collect the coupons? Yeah. Um I mean when at checkout, they throw them in the box and then if it's at on a register, I put them in the pouch. Okay. Have you ever told anybody about this? like a friend, family, any coworker about it? No. And what does the policy say for something like this here? Like is there a policy about the coupons and the putting manufacturing what you can and cannot do? I mean, all is I know is it's just one item. I mean, one coupon per the reason to continue doing it or that you kept doing it since November. What was that? I don't understand. I didn't really have a reason. It's just I didn't know how to approach my managers about it. Okay. Like even if you saw him coming to the register, would you not I mean sometimes when he would come in, I would try to make myself busy so I wouldn't have to help him. Okay. And what what did you think was going to happen if you went through? I would get fired. Can I ask you one more question? Honestly, truthfully, since we already know you've been doing it with this guy, have you done it with anybody else? Family, friends, co-workers? No. Do you know if anybody else has been doing this? Not cuz I'm trying to understand how you came up. how it like how you came up with doing this so many at a time. I don't know if you saw someone else doing it or you just did it. I just did it. Okay. Did Did he indicate to you to do this? Did he tell you how to do this? Did he have an idea that you could do this? No. It's like when you when you work selfch checkout, you know what to do for certain things for like coupons like you know you have to override it. So you have to have a card to do it. Okay. So the very first time you met him, he approached you and asked you to help him with his key box. Did he go into detail about that? What that meant? So you just automatically started giving him the discounts. Mhm. Okay. All right. Did you ever think that this would come back? Yeah, I knew it was going to come back eventually, but which I couldn't say no. Well, what made you say yes the first time? What made you do it the first time? Um, the first time I thought he was just a regular customer that he just needed help with coupons, that's all. But why give him the extra the first time? If you did the overrides on the first transaction, the first time you did it where you gave him Did he tell you the amounts the first time? Yes, he always tells me to do that. Okay. So, how did he know you would do that? Honestly, I mean, what made you do I mean, if you didn't, that's the very first time. There's no I mean, you could have easily said no. What made you do that? What made you feel the need to do that? Um, maybe just to get him out. It was probably like a busy day and I just wanted everyone to be out. All right, I think that's all that I have. Um, raise your right hand square. Affirm that everything is true. Yes. Okay. Yep. Here we go. Sir. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just will need a second set. Just to stand up for me. Do you have a set? I put them on. I'm going to pat you down. Do you have anything that's going to poke or stick me? No. No. I mean, other than this, probably nothing on you that you shouldn't have. No, it's just my phone and my AirPods. Um, I have my keys downstairs with my Where are they? They're unregistered. Okay. I'm sure we'll get your house key and stuff. Yeah. My car keys. My car. Can you just turn around for me? Yep. All right. What we'll do is we'll get all your property. And that's the end of our bargain bandits run. Charged with fraud and grand theft. She walked away with 3 years of probation and a $63,000 bill. Looks like her coupon clipping days are officially over. And this time, no amount of discounts will help her out. What do you think? Was that a fair sentence? or did she get off easy? Let me know in the comments. And don't forget to subscribe.