Shoppers turn Walmart self-checkout into personal slot machine

WINTER HAVEN, Florida (KTRK) -- Police in Florida are looking for a group of people who used a Walmart self-checkout as their own personal slot machine.

Last week, at least eight people who appeared to know each other allegedly took advantage of an employee's error to take more than $1,100 in $20 bills from the store.

At around 12:34 a.m. Saturday, the group went to check out at the Walmart in Winter Haven.

Police said a bald man with a large tattoo on his right shoulder scanned and paid cash for two items, but soon found himself better off when the machine spit out a $20 bill instead of the $5 and change he was owed back.

While most people might have alerted a store employee, police said the man told his friends or family members, including three children, about his discovery.

You can probably guess what happened next.

According to investigators, the group spent more than 20 minutes bilking Walmart out of their $20 bills from the machine, ringing up one small item each in order to receive change that should have included a $5 bill.

Now police want to find the adults and children seen taking cash from the self-checkout.

Police said the children appeared to be a girl between 13 to 15 years old, and two boys between 10 and 12 years old.

A store audit found an employee accidentally placed the $20 bills in the $5 bill slot.

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