How to beat the high cost of Christmas shopping....

[TC4]

If you wanna save some bucks this holiday season, well, here is one way

http://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.

Baldino could not be reached for comment Thursday. 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."