The Switch—it’s one of the great classics of shoplifting techniques. Traditionally, The Switch involves preexisting tags of disparate value. Properly executed, a price tag of lower total cost will replace the original, leaving the shoplifter with a lower price at the checkout. (If one feels guilty later, The Inverse Switch can be used to mark prices up.)

If one were to get even more stupid cheap, Ichiku’s Barcode Magic can be used to generate your own custom pricing labels for whatever price you choose. Since most barcodes use a uniform system, it isn’t that difficult to make something expensive—say, an iPod—cost just a five-spot.

Of course, if you choose to use the $25 Barcode Magic to fleece a retailer, you may find yourself in the same cell as young Jonathan Baldino, who is now facing felony charges of forgery for attempting the very same maneuver in a Boulder-area Target.

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