I got this from Drudge, too funny!!!   You have to read the little thief's apology letter.  

Sounds like he got greedy and it caught up with him!!    

www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3270764

Swiping goes high-tech in bar-code scam

Police say CU freshman bought big-ticket items cheap after printing his own labels
By George Merritt
Denver Post Staff Writer  

Boulder - Jonathan Baldino might be off the "nice" list.

Police say Baldino used homemade bar codes to buy electronic gadgets at prices far below any legitimate discount. The 19-year-old is facing three counts of being naughty - one of them a Class 5 felony.

Baldino was detained by Target security Wednesday after he purchased a $150 iPod with a bar-code label of $4.99.

Baldino, a freshman electrical-engineering student at the University of Colorado, told police that he made phony bar codes from real bar codes taken from inexpensive merchandise, then glued those bar codes on to big-ticket items at Target, according to the police report.

Baldino's alleged holiday caper actually worked - once.

On Nov. 16, he downloaded a program  called "Barcode Magic" in his dorm room and made a bar code for a CD player that cost $24.99, police said. Then he went shopping - sticking his homemade bar code on a system for using iPods valued at $249.99, police said.

But Baldino's alleged scam was thwarted Wednesday when he returned to Target and was recognized by the store's security specialist, according to police. The specialist watched Baldino check out, discovering that Baldino paid for headphones worth $4.99, while he was walking out with an iPod worth $149.99.

 Busted, Baldino begged for a little yuletide forgiveness.

"I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"

Police, however, did not acquiesce. He faces a felony count of forgery and two misdemeanor counts of theft.

"Price switching has been around forever, but this is certainly an advanced form," police spokeswoman Julie Brooks said. "We're seeing a lot more computer involvement in crimes that used to be almost juvenile in nature."

Baldino's bar-code bargains pale in comparison with other national cases. In November, a Reno, Nev., man was arrested for stealing more than $200,000 worth of Legos in a bar-code scam. Baldino is accused of stealing $370 from Target.

Baldino told police he got the idea from a friend in California, where Baldino is from.

"Once Baldino got here at college, he didn't have any money to buy things," officer Don Schuler wrote in the report. "He remembered his friend's idea and did a Google search for 'Barcode Magic."'

According to its website, Barcode Magic allows users to "generate bar codes for home, hobby and retail with our easy to use bar-code software. Simply select a bar-code style and font, enter desired text and numbers, and a bar code is automatically created."

Baldino signed up for the 15-day trial software, according to police. He went to Target to get the bar-code numbers for inexpensive items, then typed the bar-code number into the software on his computer to make his own bar-code sticker.

 Baldino told police that he didn't have an accomplice at Target. "He looked for female checkers that he thought did not know enough about electronic items to catch the switch," Schuler wrote in his report.

When police went to Baldino's Sterns West dorm to get his computer, a detective noticed the box for Baldino's printer.

"The code on the box has been covered with a code sticker I recognized as the one the Target employees confiscated that Baldino had self-printed," Schuler wrote.

In a follow-up statement to police, he wrote: "I am extremely sad now, and I just want to go to bed," he wrote. "Please let me sleep in my own bed tonight."


Baldino could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Staff researcher Barry Osborne contributed to this report.

Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or [email protected].

"I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"

Boo fucking hoo.  

Damn! Im downloading barcode magic right now! Ill get me some good cheap stuff for X-Mas!

Quoted: Damn! Im downloading barcode magic right now! Ill get me some good cheap stuff for X-Mas!

A 19 year old wus.  I was waiting for the quote, "I just want my mommy".

Make him a felon and have this follow him around for the rest of his life.

"You so stooopid!"

Busted, what a little jerk!!

$4.99

Jesus Christ.  If you're going to do it make it believable or do it on items people wont notice.  A fucking IPod is nearly universally recognized.  My 60 year old mother knows what one is and that it doesn't cost $4.99 and that it isn't headphones.

You deserve jail for being so retarded... and that's on top of being a fucking thief.

Quoted:  Busted, Baldino begged for a little yuletide forgiveness. "I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"

Busted, Baldino begged for a little yuletide forgiveness. "I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"

What a little bitch.

This thief is a freshman (19!!!!) in college and writes like a 5th grader!

Damn, I wish we had a photo of the prick!!

Please don't butt rape me Mr Bubba! I'm an innocent man! I didn't know there would be involuntary anal sex in prison. I just want to go to bed with my behymen intact.


What a fucking moron.

Kids do stupid things.  I know I did.  I only straightened out when I got busted and realized that certain behaviors deem certain consequences.

Sometimes the price of education is high!

Quoted: Please don't butt rape me Mr Bubba! I'm an innocent man! I didn't know there would be involuntary anal sex in prison. I just want to go to bed with my behymen intact. What a fucking moron.

I think in prison he would be known as a "trout"????

Quoted: Kids do stupid things.  I know I did.  I only straightened out when I got busted and realized that certain behaviors deem certain consequences. Sometimes the price of education is high!

I agree.  Make him pay Target about $500, plus some legal fees, and be done with it.  No reason to make a big deal about it.  He's probably learned his lesson.

I just want to go to bed with my behymen intact.




behymen  

That's one for the dictionary!  AWESOME!


Disconnector

Quoted: This is probably the reason the "Sales Associate" walks high dollar items to the checkout "for you" now.  (at Best Buy anyway...) Sidenote:  Barcode Magic is being downloaded like wildfire.  In the long Christmas Shopping lines with the number of sales, I bet millions will be "saved/lost" (depending on which guy you are) this season.

We walked high-dollar items when I worked at BB ten years ago . . . this is still shoplifting, just more sophisticated.

19 y/o isn't a "kid" anymore

He's only sorry he got caught

$200,000 worth of legos?

Bar code switchers can be tough to catch. The deal is that you will usually get away with it the first time(as long as you don't try to get too greedy). But tag switchers ALWAYS end up trying to get $400 merchandise for $4. They draw attention to themselves because of their greed.

When I was in school, a guy down the hall from me got busted for making 20k in funny money. Idiot used the library copiers. IIRC he got busted while going to a McDonald's...

Quoted: Bar code switchers can be tough to catch. The deal is that you will usually get away with it the first time(as long as you don't try to get too greedy). But tag switchers ALWAYS end up trying to get $400 merchandise for $4. They draw attention to themselves because of their greed.

Right....moving that decimal point two spots over instead of one is usually what nabs em.

Quoted: Bar code switchers can be tough to catch. The deal is that you will usually get away with it the first time(as long as you don't try to get too greedy). But tag switchers ALWAYS end up trying to get $400 merchandise for $4. They draw attention to themselves because of their greed.

Are you saying it isn't wise to switch the price from a box of ammo onto a gun?

Too bad so sad...asshole kid knew what he was doing...and he knew it was wrong.

Now he is going to have a felony conviction on his record for the rest of his life.

No guns for him....

Wonder if McDonald's would hire him?

Quoted: Quoted: Bar code switchers can be tough to catch. The deal is that you will usually get away with it the first time(as long as you don't try to get too greedy). But tag switchers ALWAYS end up trying to get $400 merchandise for $4. They draw attention to themselves because of their greed. I could DEFINATELY see this working on MP3 players with a 128MB barcode while you run through the 2Gig model. Also with Paper, ink cartridges, blank CDs vs Blank DVDs...   What is next, RFID "barcodes"???

The really stupid ones will make a barcode of a toy item that is a couple dollars. Then put it on a stereo or TV(or some big electronics item). When the cashier scans the TV and it comes up as a barbie doll the jig is usually up.

I had a guy once that made a barcode for $3ish. He put it on this toy robot that was $99. But he put the same barcode on ALL of the $99 robots, he figured if he got caught that he could say someone else must have done it and that he was just buying the robot because it was a good deal. Problem with his story is that the real price was on a big sign right next to the robots, so the only person that would know about "the good deal" was the person that put the fake barcodes on them.

Stupid people keep me in business though

Target doesn't sell ACOGs do they? because I've got a Tacpoint barcode with their name on it!

In all seriousness, this method of theft has zero difference from just sticking the items he stole in his pocket... it just lacks even more balls than stealing the old fashioned way. If you make it to 19 and don't know that, you are so stupid I'm surprised you even remember to breathe.

Wenzeled!