Walmart shelves in Springhill, Mansfield, cleared in EBT glitch

Shows once again how the welfare people will will lie, cheat or steal on anything and how fast it can fall apart...







.........................................................................................................................................
MANSFIELD, LA (KSLA) -
Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.
The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.
calling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."
Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was helcalling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."d by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food. calling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."
http://ksla.images.worldnow.com/images/23679489_BG1.JPG
Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

"Just about everything is gone, I've never seen it in that condition," said Mansfield Walmart customer Anthony Fuller.

Walmart employees could still be seen putting food from the carts away as late as Sunday afternoon. "I was just thinking, I'm so glad my mom doesn't work here [Walmart] anymore, that's the only thing I could think about, those employees working, that would have to restock all that stuff," said O.J Evans who took cell phone video of the overflowing shopping carts at the Mansfield Walmart.

Evans believes it was natural human reaction that led people to fill up their carts during the glitch, but Walmart shoppers Stan and Judy Garcia feel very differently. "That's plain theft, that's stealing that's all I got to say about it," said Garcia.

Lynd says contrary to rumors, nobody was unruly or arrested and they were mainly there to help prevent shoplifting and theft.

A dispatcher for Mansfield police also confirms officers were called in for crowd control at the Mansfield Walmart. She said the shelves were clearcalling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."ed out, forcing Walmart to stop selling food at 9 p.m. There were no arrests. calling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."

There was, however, a huge mess left behind. Pictures and videos obtained by KSLA News 12 show aisles packed with shoppers emptying the shelves in Springhill. Another video shows what appear to be at least dozens of overflowing carts left abandoned in the aisles at the Mansfield store, against the backdrop of emptied shelves in the meat department.

It all happened at the end of a day in which the EBT system went down in several states, including Louisiana. Xerox, a vendor for the EBT system, experienced a power outage while conducting a routine backup test in one of the company's locations. While the system was back up Saturday night, it appears that it was not functioning entirely properly in some areas.

Kayla Whaling, a spokesperson for Walmart, tells KSLA News 12 that the company was "fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage."

"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards (and purchases on WIC and SNAP) during the outage so that they could get food for their families."

Asked whether Walmart would be taking the loss on any food purchased on the cards that did not show limits, or on the perishable food left behind in carts, Whaling would only say that "we monitored transactions during the outage."

A spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services says they take all allegations of potential fraud seriously, they are aware of the reports and they will be investigating.

According to a notice posted on the LA DSFS website on Saturday:

"While transactional systems maintained by DCFS contractors may have been impacted by today's outage, the systems that DCFS uses to track EBT card usage and identify fraud were still in place. DCFS vigorously investigates all fraud claims. Anyone suspected of fraudulently using public assistance benefits are investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The public is encouraged to report cases of suspected SNAP fraud bycalling the DCFS toll-free hotline at 1-888-LAHELP-U and selecting option 7 from the main menu or by visiting www.dcfs.la.gov/ReportFraud."

 

WTH is wrong with people? I would like to know why Wal-mart is not prosecuting. It is theft! Does Wal-mart think the Gov't i.e. the American taxpayer wants to pay for this glitch? Heads up folks. This is the result of a few hours.... imagine a few days.....

 

No, no, no... Nobody would EVER take advantage of the welfare/food stamp system.. It's the welfare recipients who are being taken advantage of. / sarcasm off...

 

"There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government." - Benjamin Franklin

 

Hmmm... Anybody wanna bet on whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Garcia are among those who receive food stamps?

OK, serious time - if all these fraudulent transactions took place, won't there be a record of each one? And from there, won't they be able to find (and prosecute) all of these lowlifes? And.... if someone is found guilty of defrauding the welfare state, are they still eligible to receive their handouts? If not, (and I really, really hope they're not) then this whole incident will end up saving taxpayers' money in the long run. Not only that, all these losers who just got kicked off the free ride will now have to work for a living, thereby contributing to society, rather than being a drain on it. This, my monkey friends, could be a good thing!

Kudos to you, Louisiana. Now if only the rest of us will follow suit and experience the same "glitches in the system", hehehe...

 

Yes, they will be able to prosecute. Records are kept. Weather or not they do is still in question.
IF kicked off welfare, after such a free ride, they will clearly vote to recreate their soft ride.

 

Think about this: this incident was spurred by a simple glitch which caused the remaining balance not to be displayed.

What might the results be if the system were to crash entirely ?

 

It would be chaos. There were threats of rioting when the cards didn't work on Saturday and now this. What is wrong with these people? They truly have the "I am owed" mentality. Last week I deposited my check and there was a glitch. I couldn't get any money for 24 hours. I didn't riot, I didn't scream and yell. I actually got a free pen and a key chain for my inconvenience but I didn't panic, I didn't need RIGHT NOW. That is the problem, these people get their needs met, they don't have to budget cause they don't earn. Therefore when there is a glitch in their favor they have no guilty conscious about taking what is not theirs.

 

This is a generalization, but the stereotypical person in this group only knows a few techniques for problem solving and conflict resolution. Those include 1) make a ruckus up to threatening and committing violence, 2) cheat/lie/steal 3) play the victim

 

This is just a preview of post SHTF

 

And I just can't shake the suspicion that it might have been the teeniest bit intentional...a small test to give TPTB a glimpse at what they can truly expect. They knew "something" would happen but until it does, you can't predict exactly the response. Somebody, somewhere did this on purpose, data was gathered and is now being reviewed...

 

Theft, fraud aside, the EBT office knows exactly how much $$ each individual racked up. It's a simple enough matter for them to deduct the overages from future handouts. That would lead to all sorts of shenanigans as the losers went to check their balance at the first of the month, and found it to be a big fat zero... possibly for the next several months. Calls to the EBT office would get little more than a shrug and a notification of how long they'd be without "benefits" while the "loan" was paid back in full.... preferably with interest.

I suspect if they try to go this route, however, a bunch of bleeding hearts will start parading out the hungry children and ask how the govt could be so heartless as to let children starve over a few hundred bucks.

 

Yeah well if some of those people had donated the 'free' food to the food bank, there would be alot less hungry kids. And I will say that not all people on food stamps are this pathetic. The government just likes to waste money. I know someone who on their EBT card in winter gets a cash amount for heating/fuel. They get a whole $1. One frickin' dollar. And it probably costs $100 to 'process' and distribute that single dollar.

 

what'll knock your shoes off are some of the public comments left in regard to the articles wrote by the bloggers or news media .....

good majority accused the authors of racist remarks becaused they dared to call a thief a thief .....

that baby mommy that tried to skate thru with $700+ food with only 49 cents to her name .... she was just mistaken about her balance .... no intention of stealing .... just that she's never had $700 in her entire life .....

somehow WallyWorld "owes" these people free goods ....

it's all OK because WallyWorld is a big corporation and can afford it ....

 

Nothing to see here, Just savages being savages. But we already knew that !

 

Before EBT cards people got food stamps. They could report them lost or stolen once a year and have them replaced. I used to take a lot of stolen food stamp report in November and December for some reason.

 

Update: Louisiana says this is all on Walmart.

Guess Who’s Footing the Bill for That Walmart Food Stamp Fiasco (It May Not Be Who You Think) | Video | TheBlaze.com

Will be interesting to see if Wally World goes after those involved, or decides it's just a drop in the bucket and not worth it considering that it could end up being spun into negative PR.

 

If anyone got violent/pushy, (especially if they injured an employee) they might go after them, but not for the money. Not worth the bad press about further victimizing those "poor souls trying to just put food in the mouths of their babies".

 

Yeah, I'm sure in that case, their babies are the kind that eat steak and Doritos.

 

I shop at Walmart and it angers me that they are not going to go after these people. So walmart says there is a $50 limit yet they were ringing up hundreds. BS! Someone is going to make up for that loss and it will be the honest shoppers with a slight increase.