It could be considered a negative case of extreme couponing.
Three people, one of which was a grocery store manager, allegedly hatched a scam to net thousands of dollars of goods using fake coupons.
Detective Antonio Romano of the West Melbourne Police Department showed a very long receipt of items bought at the Publix on Palm Bay Road in West Melbourne back on July 15.
"She used $647.54 worth of coupons, and she paid a grand total of 87 cents," he said.
Surveillance photos show 31-year-old Jennifer Ann Bailey, with kids in tow, making the purchase.
Also in the picture, according to police, was 28-year-old Matthew Heath, a store manager and the cashier for the purchase.
"They were making fraudulent coupons, altering coupons they found online. Making it so it wouldn't look odd to Publix," said Detective Romano.
The phony coupons were from Target, a competitor, which Publix accepts.
Romano said cashiers must manually type in the coupon codes during the transactions Bailey would buy hundreds of dollars in gift cards to avoid any red flags.
The amount off the purchase the coupons promised is what made them stand out, Romano said.
"$2.50 off. That is just too much money off on one item, because they are usually about that much," Romano said.
Other coupons promised $5 off meat or seafood.
In some transactions, Publix owed her money.
For his effort, police said, Heath would be given $20 per transaction, and over time he got around $1,000 total.
Over several months, the scammers got away with nearly $20,000 in fake coupon products by making around $600 worth of purchases at a time.
As for the food, investigators said they gave it away.
"They would donate the food to local churches or food pantries with the intent, I believe, to be looked at high in the community," Romano said.
The other suspect, 50-year-old Debbie Dalton, was just arrested for her role in the bogus coupon scheme.