Sisters detained over supermarket thefts
Three sisters alleged to have stolen over 2,000 yuan (US$290) worth of products from a supermarket have been detained, Shanghai police said on Thursday.
One of the women, surnamed Yang, worked as a cashier at the supermarket and it is alleged that she rigged the inventory system to commit the theft with her sisters.
Police in Yangpu District launched an investigation on September 9 when the director of the supermarket, surnamed Jiang, reported that a lot of products had gone from the inventory.
Yang became a suspect as the deletion of products from the system always happened on her shift, and she was also authorized to revise data in the supermarket’s computer system, police said.
Footage from surveillance cameras is said to show Yang taking products from the shelves, scanning them at the cashier's desk and leaving them there before deleting the items on the computer. Not long after, two women arrived and while paying for other items at the desk bagged up the products left there previously.
The three suspects were caught on the same day the case was reported, and the stolen products were found in Yang’s home, police said.
The suspects are said to have admitted that they had been stealing from the supermarket this way since August.
The stolen products were mostly shampoo, bodywash and toothpaste, with the suspects claiming they stole them for their own use, according to police.