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A man allegedly packed 108 cans and bottles of Tiger Beer into 18 mineral water boxes at a Lotus’s hypermarket in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, on 21 October, before staff stopped him at the cashier counter.

The man reportedly resealed the boxes to make them look untouched and pushed the load toward the checkouts.

The tactic relies on a cashier scanning the cartons as cheaper mineral water.

Staff halted the transaction and opened the boxes, which contained rows of beer instead of water, according to the report.

Security personnel detained the man at the scene and alerted police, who arrived and arrested him, the report stated.

Photos and videos from the scene showed open mineral water boxes beside a stack of confiscated Tiger Beer cans on a checkout counter.

The reasons, it was said, were the weight of the boxes, the cardboard that appeared to have been taped shut again, and the man’s odd behaviour.

The “Training Mode” Receipt Mystery

When the story went viral on Facebook, a photo of a receipt totalling RM754.02 for 18 items circulated alongside pictures of the beer.

Some sharp-eyed netizens and journalists then noticed the words “TRAINING MODE” printed on it.

That detail raised two possibilities: the receipt may not have come from a live, official sale.

Staff may also have printed it after the arrest to total up the seized goods for an internal report or police paperwork.

Because of the receipt and the lack of an immediate formal statement from Penang police, independent fact-checkers have said the attempt and the confrontation at the Lotus’s branch in Bukit Mertajam appear to have taken place.

The exact sequence of events and the criminal charges, however, still await official confirmation from the authorities.

Parts of this story have been sourced from Oriental Daily and China Press.

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