The Unmanned Ice Cream Shop Where Barcode Scanning Sounds Came From an Empty Checkout Every Night

When I first heard this, I thought it was just another machine error story.

Apparently, an unmanned ice cream shop kept making barcode scanning sounds late at night. At first, that didn’t sound that strange. Those shops are everywhere now. Kids come in after school, and at night, drunk people stop by for ice cups, instant noodles, or something cold on the way home.

Unmanned store machines act up all the time.

Some people try to insert their card before scanning anything. Some scan the wrong part of the package. Some think the payment went through and start leaving, then come back when the machine starts beeping. I see that kind of thing at convenience store self-checkouts too.

So at first, I thought it was probably nothing.

But this story was different because it wasn’t just one person saying it.

The shop was near the entrance of a studio apartment neighborhood. Not on a main road, but not deep inside an alley either. There were old villas and studio apartments around it, so even late at night, people still passed by. Drunk people coming home, delivery riders finishing their shift, people returning from convenience stores, people stepping out for late-night snacks.

So the rumor spread pre