Walmart Shelves Emptied in Food Stamp Shopping Spree

[tangent4ronpaul]

LULZ!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-shelves-emptied-food-stamp-shopping-spree/story?id=20563982

Louisiana officials are trying to decide what to do about a massive shopping spree by families on food stamps when a power outage lifted the caps on their spending cards.

Police were called to Walmarts in Mansfield, La., and Springhill, La., on Saturday as shoppers cleaned out store shelves.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd said some customers were pushing more food than any household could store in a refrigerator and freezer.

"I saw people drag out 8 to 10 grocery carts," he said.

Lynd said customers were "not unruly." There were no fights or arrests made, but the scene was still chaotic, he said.

"It was definitely worse than Black Friday. It was worse than anything we had ever seen in this town," Lynd said of Springhill, which is near the border with Arkansas. "There was no food left on any of the shelves, and no meat left. The grocery part of Walmart was totally decimated."

He said one customer made about $700 in food purchases.

Lynd said that around 9 p.m. CT on Saturday, a Walmart employee made an announcement on the intercom saying that the computer system had been restored and card limits had returned. At that time, customers left shopping carts full of food in store aisles.

"At that point in time, they knew the jig was up and they couldn't purchase what they wanted to," Lynd said.

In the Walmart store in Mansfield, about 80 miles south of Springhill, staff temporarily closed the store to new customers to prevent a fire hazard with the existing number of shoppers.

Mansfield's chief of police Gary Hobbs said no arrests were made and there were no incidents besides customers "pushing and shoving." Hobbs said there were reports that customers were checking out with 6 to 8 shopping carts, then returning later in the day to purchase more.

Unlike Walmart, other grocery stores in towns told customers they would not accept EBT cards until the card limits were evident again, Hobbs said.

The Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program and has limited staff due to the government shutdown, did not return a request for comment.

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services' spokesman Trey Williams said the agency is meeting today to discuss how to handle the issue.

The shopping frenzy was triggered when the Electronic Benefits Transfer system went down because a back-up generator failed at 11 a.m. EST Saturday during a regularly-scheduled test, according to Xerox, based in Norwalk, Conn., a vendor for the EBT system.

The outage allowed recipients to spend unlimited amounts of money because the spending limit was removed for their EBT cards.

The EBT system was affected in 17 states, where individuals and households access programs like Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program , Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and other programs.

"The loss of power triggered a preventative shutdown of the EBT system to protect its overall integrity," according to a statement from Xerox spokesman, Kevin Lightfoot. "While the system was restored within 22 minutes, the network experienced connectivity issues until our technical staff were able to re-establish full access just before 10 p.m. EST."

Lynd said the Springhill Walmart store manager called police on Saturday morning to ask for advice over crowd control. When he arrived, Lynd told the Walmart staff that they had the right to refuse service if they chose to, but Walmart's corporate office advised the store to allow customers to purchase what they wanted with the cards.

A spokeswoman for Walmart, Kayla Whaling, said the frenzied shopping in Louisiana "was isolated and is not representative of the what our stores experienced across the country."

Xerox said that it continues to "investigate the cause of the issue so we can take steps to ensure a similar interruption does not re-occur."

-t

[cajuncocoa]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?430340-EBT-cards-return-to-service-some-with-no-limit

[tangent4ronpaul]

Video with this version:

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/louisiana_food_stamps_accepted.html

-t

[cajuncocoa]

Guess who will end up paying for the overages? And the perishable food that was left in the aisles of Walmart?

[Philhelm]

Dirty, greedy thieves.

[donnay]

Testing 1...2...3.

[69360]

Now this is welfare fraud. Total blatant outright fraud and theft. These people should be prosecuted.

I think walmart had a moral, maybe not legal, responsibility to close the store.

[donnay]

Now this is welfare fraud. Total blatant outright fraud and theft. These people should be prosecuted.

I think walmart had a moral, maybe not legal, responsibility to close the store.


LOL! That's funny. The criminals in DC are looting the country--what are you going to do about that?

[kcchiefs6465]

Now this is welfare fraud. Total blatant outright fraud and theft. These people should be prosecuted.

I think walmart had a moral, maybe not legal, responsibility to close the store.
No it's okay, you see. Stealing money from those who steal money isn't wrong.

[Keith and stuff]

The government hands out food. The government limit was designed to be removed. The limit was designed. If someone took $250 in food stamps in 1 month or $600, either way, they didn't earn it. They didn't work for it. And it wasn't the government money to give in the first place. The government is the 1 that stole the money for the food stamps. The government is the 1 that created this system of electronic food stamps that are flaky. Or at least, the government paid a private company to do it because they government didn't even have the ability to make a broken system.

[Cowlesy]

Geez, I hope we never have a serious power grid failure that knocks out the EBT system for any period of time longer than a few weeks. Seems like those people would get quite grumpy, and in a hurry.

[tod evans]

Geez, I hope we never have a serious power grid failure that knocks out the EBT system for any period of time longer than a few weeks. Seems like those people would get quite grumpy, and in a hurry.

I hope it happens tomorrow:eek:

[kathy88]

Now this is welfare fraud. Total blatant outright fraud and theft. These people should be prosecuted.

I think walmart had a moral, maybe not legal, responsibility to close the store.

How on earth did you find RPFs?

[phill4paul]

I wonder if any of them took one look around and decided to clear the Mountain House freeze dried food section?

[aGameOfThrones]

Imagine if they could buy electronics.

[tod evans]

Imagine if they could buy electronics.

I'm sure many do at 2-1 or 3-1 rates just like before with the paper food-stamps.

[phill4paul]

I'm sure many do at 2-1 or 3-1 rates just like before with the paper food-stamps.

I met an ex-judge down in Florida that wore a tie-dye and drove a Jag. He also was partnered with others in a string of grocery stores. He, and the others, made quite a bit in conversions that they then laundered through the stores.

[heavenlyboy34]

:eek:

[Lucille]

SMH Isn't this a fine how-do-you-do.

Not only do they have no shame being on the dole and taking from their neighbors without so much as a thank you, they have no compunction about committing fraud and theft, and not only does WalMart admit without shyness or remorse that they are an accessory to both crimes, but cops were actually called there not to prevent the crimes, but to "maintain order." Maintain orderly fraud and theft, they mean.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-14/shopper-stampede-ensues-when-foodstamp-glitch-removes-walmart-spending-limits


On Saturday, tens of millions of Americans across 17 states found themselves in an unfamiliar situation: they couldn't rely on the US government for their daily foodstamp-funded bread. The result was anger, confusion and sometimes, outright panic, as shoppers left their full shopping carts in stores, and departed their favorite general retailer in a daze. However, while most outlets that accepted EBT were experiencing a one-day, non-recurring hit to their EPS, several Walmart stores in Louisiana decided to brave through the Xerox-induced blackout for several hours by eliminating the spending caps on EBT cards, leading to nothing short of shopping stampedes. The result, as CBS reports, is that "Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield ... were called into the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry."


Walmart workers phoned their corporate headquarters to ask how they should handle all the shoppers with unlimited, government-funded spending limits, and were told to keep the registers ringing.

"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards during the outage so that they could get food for their families," Walmart representative Kayla Whaling told KSLA. She added that Walmart was, "fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage."

Shoppers gave mixed reactions to the incident, with one man in the Springhill store told KSLA it was simply "human reaction" to stock-up when given the opportunity. Shopper Stan Garcia was more critical of the unscrupulous shoppers, however, saying that taking advantage of the brief glitch in the benefits system amounted to "plain theft. That's stealing, that's all I got to say about it."

The police disagreed:


Police spokesmen in both locations told KSLA that no arrests were made during the spending sprees....

But of course.

[kathy88]

Hopefully those that were able to buy 700 worth of groceries on card with a 250 limit will not get bennies until it's paid back.































BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[Carlybee]

Vote Democrat! Free Obamafood!

[69360]

How on earth did you find RPFs?

What do you mean? These people knew damn well they were stealing. They should be charged with theft or fraud. Walmart also knew better than to let this happen. I think they had a responsibility to shut the doors to stop it.

[torchbearer]

Hopefully those that were able to buy 700 worth of groceries on card with a 250 limit will not get bennies until it's paid back.































BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

that is most likely to happen.

[ghengis86]

~47 million out of ~300 million people rely on the government to eat. Let that sink in for a minute.

Now, do you realize how royally this country is screwed ?

[torchbearer]

~47 million out of ~300 million people rely on the government to eat. Let that sink in for a minute.

Now, do you realize how royally this country is screwed ?

civil war is coming.
the zombies will be out soon enough.

[ghengis86]

civil war is coming.
the zombies will be out soon enough.

The good news is that once it starts, the worst of it will be contained to the major cities and 'burbs and there will be plenty of warning. I guess that's only good if you're in the styx.

But it will be ugly regardless of where you are.

[torchbearer]

The good news is that once it starts, the worst of it will be contained to the major cities and 'burbs and there will be plenty of warning. I guess that's only good if you're in the styx.

But it will be ugly regardless of where you are.


I'll be in my isolated styx location soon enough.
a water drainage canal make a natural moot around the area, and two bridges could be taken out or guarded to prevent incursion.
a community of about 200 people who long time lineage in the area reside there.

[69360]

The good news is that once it starts, the worst of it will be contained to the major cities and 'burbs and there will be plenty of warning. I guess that's only good if you're in the styx.

But it will be ugly regardless of where you are.

Meh, bring it on. Nothing is going to happen here in the oldest, whitest state in the country with vast natural resources.

[kathy88]

What do you mean? These people knew damn well they were stealing. They should be charged with theft or fraud. Walmart also knew better than to let this happen. I think they had a responsibility to shut the doors to stop it.

See something say something, got it.

[dannno]

I wonder if any of them took one look around and decided to clear the Mountain House freeze dried food section?

Ya I would recommend that and dried fruit, rice and canned goods. And toilet papers. Lots of toilet paper if there's room.

[kcchiefs6465]

~47 million out of ~300 million people rely on the government to eat. Let that sink in for a minute.

Now, do you realize how royally this country is screwed ?
24 million people are employed by the government. (that is not including the companies that are subsidized)

[donnay]

Meh, bring it on. Nothing is going to happen here in the oldest, whitest state in the country with vast natural resources.

Even in Lewiston, ME with all the Somali refugee families on government assistance?


Generally, city officials estimate that the size of Lewiston’s Somali population today is somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000. Hussein Ahmed estimates that the number is closer to 6,000.
http://www.sunjournal.com/news/city/2011/12/18/struggle-and-progess-10-years-somalis-lewiston/1127846

[69360]

Even in Lewiston, ME with all the Somali refugee families on government assistance?


http://www.sunjournal.com/news/city/2011/12/18/struggle-and-progess-10-years-somalis-lewiston/1127846

Yeah, 5000 out a little more than a million is nothing. The somalians for the most part are ok people, they don't really bother anyone or cause trouble. They chose to come to Maine because it's safe, they weren't sent here.

Are you race baiting me? I don't dislike minorities. But let's face reality here, states with large concentrations of minorities statistically are higher crime. I'm not interested in arguing the reason for that, just stating the way it is. If SHTF the big cities will fall apart and not much if anything will happen here. That's a huge part of why I live here and I suspect of why you live in NH, could be wrong.

[69360]

See something say something, got it.

So fraud and theft are ok if the victim is government and a megacorporation aids and abets it?

Nobody needs to turn these fraudsters in, they left an electronic trail.

[donnay]

Yeah, 5000 out a little more than a million is nothing. The somalians for the most part are ok people, they don't really bother anyone or cause trouble. They chose to come to Maine because it's safe, they weren't sent here.

Are you race baiting me? I don't dislike minorities. But let's face reality here, states with large concentrations of minorities statistically are higher crime. I'm not interested in arguing the reason for that, just stating the way it is. If SHTF the big cities will fall apart and not much if anything will happen here. That's a huge part of why I live here and I suspect of why you live in NH, could be wrong.


I didn't make this comment: "Nothing is going to happen here in the oldest, whitest state in the country with vast natural resources."

Just trying to put things in perspective--that's all. There are lots of white people in Maine on government assistance too. When it gets cut off, people of all colors, shapes and sizes are going to go crazy.

[TywinLannister]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzxwQfrCgrs

[tod evans]

I want the government "workers" out in the streets scrounging for food.

I'd be far more inclined to help a person kicked off welfare with a 1/2 a deer than some suit-n-tie government "worker".

[69360]

I didn't make this comment: "Nothing is going to happen here in the oldest, whitest state in the country with vast natural resources."

Just trying to put things in perspective--that's all. There are lots of white people in Maine on government assistance too. When it gets cut off, people of all colors, shapes and sizes are going to go crazy.

The cards stopped working here too and nothing happened.

I'm a realist, its just a fact that it's many many times safer here if shtf than in a big city. Statistically old white people just don't commit violent crime. There just aren't going to be riots and looting here. If government fails, we stop exporting food from the state and all the government regulations on production and acquisition of food are out the window. Everyone can farm, hunt and fish all they want and we'll be fine. I suspect the situation will be exactly the same in NH.

[donnay]

The “Average” EBT User May Not Be Who You’d Expect
Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper

When people think of the average EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card user, they envision a career welfare recipient who has 12 kids by 11 different prison-residing fathers. Because of this notion, when the story broke this weekend about the EBT system failure, many of the responses were quite cold, callous, and even downright spiteful.

Of course, the rioting through Wal-Marts across the nation certainly didn’t help. Within hours the shelves were razed. The abandoned shopping carts of melting food and the carefully selected hungry spokespeople on the mainstream news just served to reinforce the conception that those who were left to go without groceries deserved to miss a few meals.

But….who IS the average EBT user?

Nearly 48 million Americans receive assistance to buy food, which is up from 32 million when Barack Obama took office. While we know there has been a concentrated effort to get more people to accept assistance, the sheer volume of those who cannot afford food anymore is a symptom of the greater economic problems plaguing the country. It’s also important to note that in some states, if a person’s ex-spouse is in arrears for child support and has his or her wages garnished, the custodial parent receives that payment through the EBT system.

For example…
•The median household income in America has dropped for the 5th year in a row, according to the US Census Bureau.
•Over 1/3 of Americans who are able to work are unable to find a job - 36% of the population is unemployed.
•Obamacare is turning us into a part-time nation. For every full time job created in the United States in 2013, we’ve created four part-time jobs. Employers are not hiring people full time if it means they’ll have to pay for skyrocketing insurance benefits.
•More than 2.3 million residential properties were foreclosed on in 2012, leaving families displaced when they could no longer afford their homes.
•50% of all Americans are considered “poor” or “low-income” according to the US Census Bureau.
•The unemployment rate in the U.S. has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and 42 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least half a year. (source)
•Those often being hit the hardest are those just entering the labor market. For example, about 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year. Most of the jobs that are available for young college graduates (or for the rest of us for that matter) are crappy low paying jobs that often come with no benefits. In the United States today, one out of every four workers makes ten dollars an hour or less. Now, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs. (source)

Over the past decade, many formerly middle class people have been cast into poverty through no fault of their own. They’ve lost their jobs, their homes, and their cars. When you have no job, or you have a job that pays only minimum wage, how can you keep the electricity on, keep your children clothed, and still feed your family? Through the deliberate impoverishing of the middle class, people are being controlled and enslaved. Innocent children, through no fault of their own, are going hungry – for some of these kids the only meal that they get in a day is the free lunch offered at their school.

So before you say, “So what?” or “Well, I had to pay for my groceries – I have no sympathy for them”, stop for a moment and think about why formerly hardworking people may have had to sacrifice their pride and accept some help. Think about the jobs that are no longer available. Consider the hours that are no longer offered at once full-time jobs.

Some people abuse the system. Illegal immigrants are encouraged to be on the dole. We can all tell stories about the “welfare queen” with an iPhone and a grocery cart full of steak and lobster.

But for a large percentage of formerly middle class Americans there has been a mighty fall – one deliberately set up by our own government, by the banking system, and by the “1%”.

There but for the grace of God go I.

This article is not a statement on whether or not the welfare system and social programs should exist, or how they should be funded. This is a discussion of how hard-working families just like mine and yours can quickly fall into desperate straits through the machinations of those in power.

For many people the economic collapse has arrived. Their “end of the world” event has already occurred in the form of a job loss, the foreclosure of the family home, or an illness that has caused such massive personal debt that there is truly no way out of it. Less than 60% of Americans who are of age to be in the work force have a full time job. When you tally that, it means that more than 100 million people are out of work. More than 100 million people in the United States have no jobs. For more than 100 million people, the economic collapse has arrived in full force. (source)

How do we fight back?

If you are lucky enough to still be gainfully employed, it’s time to become self-sufficient.


This is how we will be able to withstand the assaults on our freedom. Every bucket of rice you put away, every seed you save, every bite of food you grow – is a strike against the machine.

Those of us who prepare for the difficult times ahead are the ones who stand between the total domination of the powers that be and the freedom that they would take away from us. By understanding how hunger can be used against us, and then taking the initiative to prepare for that grim day, we can’t be controlled as easily as those who have spent years accepting the handouts and trudging along with the herd.

By making intelligent choices to ensure our survival and that of our children, we can resist. Every meal that you put away keeps you a little bit safer from tyranny. Every seed you plant hardens you against threats and bribery. Your self-sufficiency is what will keep you free. (source)

Be thankful that you have had the foresight and the means to prepare for the eventuality of a further economic decline. Remember that the mainstream media and the government have a vested interest in widening the chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots” because a divided populace is an easily conquered populace. Don’t be manipulated. Practice compassion. You don’t know the circumstances that caused the person in line in front of you to be swiping a card to feed his or her family. They just might be victims of a system determined to enslave.

Source:
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-average-ebt-user-may-not-be-who-youd-expect_102013

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

People cleaning up at the world's largest retailer. A more artful script could not have been written.