During back-to-school season, some municipalities have tax holidays, where sales tax isn’t charged on clothing purchases. Georgia is holding one right now, and some shoppers took advantage of the holiday to… pretend that they didn’t understand that the term doesn’t mean “grab everything you can and run out of the store.”

While that idea formed the basis for one of the greatest game shows of all time, it is not how a tax holiday actually works. Two women were caught: one was leaving a department store at Perimeter Mall wearing a pair of jeans under her sweatpants, and the other was in the store’s parking lot wearing what the police called “stolen merchandise.”

When confronted, the suspects claimed to have not picked up on the “Tax” part of the phrase, and said that they were under the impression that the store was holding a “Free Holiday,” where people could take anything they wanted and leave the store. This is not a thing that has ever actually happened. Even if it were, wouldn’t you take a cart full of jeans out the door with you, not a single pair concealed under the pants you came in with?

Police didn’t buy their story, and both women were arrested.

Alleged shoplifters say they heard ‘free holiday’ instead of ‘tax free’ [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

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