A TESCO store has fixed security tags on pens priced just £2.20.
Similar anti-theft measures have also been placed on cheap Bic biros and pencils.
A check-out worker at the store in Burnley said: “They steal anything in here.”
Customer Dylan John, 46, said: “I only went in for a ballpoint pen and felt like I was shopping for a Rolex watch.
"Are shoplifters getting that desperate?
"I can understand a nice bottle of whisky or Champagne having a security tag on but a ballpoint pen set? The world has gone bonkers.”
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The same store replaced bottles of Champers with photos for customers to take to the check-out after thieves kept pinching the fizz in 2021.
Other shops have slapped tags on everyday essentials such as butter amid soaring thefts during the cost of living crisis.
And a pack of four Andrex toilet rolls, costing £3.75, were spotted with security tags recently at a Tesco Express in South London.
Tesco declined to comment.