[kingu]

So they had a friend in the electronics department who was a keyholder who unlocked the merchandise so that they could get them and then apply the 99 cent clearance tags to use at the self checkout which was probably caught when exiting the store and the employee there looked at the receipt and saw ‘clearance cover’ on a computer...

I'd hope that Loss Prevention also found the keyholder who aided and abetted in the attempted theft and that conspiracy charges are added for both.

[BobL]

“which was probably caught when exiting the store and the employee there looked at the receipt and saw ‘clearance cover’ on a computer”

More likely they were looking from above (via cameras) and were trying to figure out why a computer rang up as 99 cents.