Happens very rare I hear. Mostly in california and new york but they have special cops that ONLY look for carders and ONLY stay at stores and are in plain clothes and they follow store to store and build a case.
I shopped at a specialty store once and at the end of the work, i paid with a card, but they had my real phone number (the number was in a different name) and i forgot they had my real number and they called me the SAME DAY, like 2 hours later saying that the card I used the card holder called and said card was stolen and the POS system didnt even authorize fully the charge. I acted stupid and had to go to the shop to pay cash 400 dollars US because I didnt want a little investigation to it. The shop owner didnt give a shit, he just wanted the money paid to him propper.
Yes it happens, but you just have to be in and out.