Self-Checkout Holds Man for 11 Days Over ‘Unexpected Item in Bagging Area’

TEMPE, AZ — Police negotiators entered their 11th day of talks Saturday with a self-checkout machine at a Saguaro Market that has held a local man since Oct. 13 over what it calls an “unexpected item in the bagging area.”

The item is a lime.

“The machine has not made any demands,” said Tempe police negotiator Sgt. Rhonda Placebo. “It just keeps telling us to please wait, help is on the way. As of this morning, it has said that 41,000 times. We believe it means it.”

The hostage, Dale Wurtzinger, 58, has been standing at Lane 4 with one hand on the scanner the entire time, because the machine beeps if he moves. His family drops off clean shirts every morning and slides them across the bagging area one at a time, which officers say has only made things worse.

“Every time a shirt goes down, it starts over,” said his daughter, Kelsey. “Yesterday it asked Dad if he brought his own bag. He started crying.”

The only store employee with the code to clear the machine, a 19-year-old named Brayden, has been on break since Tuesday. Managers say he was last seen in the parking lot “doing something on his phone.”

Shoppers have started leaving flowers and unpaid avocados at the lane. Lane 2 remains open and has no line.

When this reporter left, Brayden had come back in, typed his code, and asked Wurtzinger if he had a rewards card. The lime was put back in the bagging area.