The mark on the receipt is so someone who just bought a DVD player that shows their receipt at the door doesn’t put the DVD player in their car, come back in the store with their receipt, grab another DVD player off the shelf, wait for a shift change of the door checker, walk up to them and say “here’s my receipt! bye!”
No, if he’d pried the barcode off of another product (that he owned) it’d be fraud. If he pried the barcode off a product still in the store, it’d be vandalism and fraud.
It may vary from state to state but I think putting a false barcode on is enough to show intent. In some states just concealing an item, in your jacket or something, is enough to get you charged with shoplifting.
And you can bet that more than a few others are doing it as well. That’s why this kid whiney little pathetic punk that he is, should get some cell time. I’d bet ten bucks his parents excused every little bullshit thing he did as a kid. When he shoplifted they just wagged a finger and said “Sweetie that’s naughty” instead of kicking his ass and marching him right back to the store.
I actually think you buddies excuse would have worked at least to avoid any real prosecution. Unless they found bar codes in his pocket they’d have no proof he did it and most major chains just want to discourage shoplifters rather than the hassle of prosecution. They won’t believe him but they won’t prosecute. They might ban him from the store.
There’s dozens of little scams that people use. The more it costs the stores the stricter return policies and other things get for the honest folks.
Incidently, there is no law that says a store has to sell you something that is mistagged at the mistagged price. Most stores do that on little stuff as customer service but on larger stuff they usually won’t.