It may well have been a genuine error, many self scan checkouts only protest at unexpected items once, and its quite easy to not scan everything. I am ub er paranoid, due to being nicked for shoptheft in Tesco, yet it has happened since, and the staff look at me like I'm nuts now when I check my receipt and realise I've not actually paid for something, go running to customer services and pay.
The caution can only be given if you accept it. So its not clear to me whether he intended to steal or made a mistake, held his hands up to the mistake and thought a caution would mean less stress as a mistake had been made. I say this becuase I very nearly accepted a caution.. even though my mistake was genuine, I had left the store with unpaid items and so was 'guilty' of that... however, theft isn't just about leaving a store with unpaid items, its about INTENT. I'm glad I didn't accept the caution.
I very nearly did.
I can't say what AWT did, what he intended etc., but I'm not going to demonise him based on my own experiences.
Tesco need to sort its security out, they get it wrong as often as they get it right and there's no room for those people who make genuine mistakes, who are not theives.
Sorry. Sore subject for me. I can't jumping on the mockery train!