EBT Card Glitch leads to theft, small riots and fraud

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IIRC I read that an announcement was made over the intercom that the system was back to running normal. There is a picture that shows a bunch of carts full of goods, those are the carts that were left in the aisles when the announcement was made.


The other thing I thought about was if one of the employees at the register is who realized that the sky was the limit and started calling, (texting) friends and family. Just a thought
 
People KNOW their balance & I hope Washington has backbone to hold out payment for anyone who took advantage of the system. Oh, don't let me get started....
 
txsvicki said:
I wonder if the EBT purchases are recorded somehow. These people will surely be caught and have their foodstamps lowered in coming months until it's paid back.
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Of course there's a record they used their ebt cards and Walmart has video.. Normally fraud will get you kicked out of the system for good.. So I m guessing these folks got their last free meal.. We can hope anyway.. Ignorance is not an excuse
 
21merc7 said:
Either way, WalMart still holds some responsibility for the decision, and whomever made that decision may not have a job long, at least only until whatever is decided is finished.
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Not so sure about that. Walmart has an army of well paid lawyers, I am sure corporate KNEW the government would have to pick up the bill which is why they said "let them buy all they want". Well that and the violence that might have ensued if the stores had DENIED the cards.

I want to see the government reduce the benefits of those that stole, they KNOW who they are! Since they have food for quite a while they won't need more cash on their EBT cards for weeks or months!

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.
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Definite fraud and the way they acted with descending in the stores like that was basically looting. I hope they are prosecuted as harshly as possible.

I know genuinely needy, disabled, elderly people who get this assistance and they had to be pushed to sign up for it. they would have gone without, even though they had paid into the system and were genuinely qualified for them. Now they don't want to be on the program because they are so embarrassed by these criminals and don;t want to be lumped in with them. they'd rather go without than be thought to be a part of these entitled parasites.
 
Was it just foodstamps ? The welfare money, cash, also goes onto the ebt card. If that had no limit they could have bought all sorts of things and even withdrawn cash.
 
Video of the aftermath:

[video=youtube;kVFn7Fc4OZA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVFn7Fc4OZA[/video]
 
shygrl said:
I think the decision makers were probably trying to be compassionate and kind. They wanted to let people get food for themselves and their children. imo This is why there is less compassion overall. People are sick of being taken advantage of! There was no need for people to act like that and take advantage of the situation. Everyone who went over should be cut off from aid.
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One of the women in my certification program worked for Walmart in college and she said women would be so ashamed of having an ebt card because of the reaction of the other customers in line that they would hand her their ebt card with a debit card over the top and say they weren't able to swipe it and could she help them. She knew immediately that they were worried about the huffing and eyerolling of the Walmart customers behind them that they would rather pretend their debit card woudn't swipe than openly use their ebt card.

Luckily, this woman is a kind soul with a loving heart and she would say "oh, I see! Perhaps if I run your card through MY swiper, it will work!"

And she would run the card through and quickly place the debit card atop to preserve the woman's dignity.

I got the same dirty looks when I worked for a church and purchased things on a tax exempt status. Geez. It's the law, peoples!
 
The day your food benefits come in coincides with the last number of your SSN, so my $16 shows up in the third. Yep, I get food benefits. I work a full time job and hold a master's degree, but that $16 makes me a leech on society to some--for me, it's very helpful and I stretch it by shopping sales with coupons---I'm that lady :blush:

Don't worry, it'll go down to $11 next month so that's five less dollars my family is sucking away.

Sigh

It's people like these thieving rioter's that screw everything up.

The cash benefits come in on the first for everyone, I think. I don't need or qualify for those, but that's my understanding. I don't know if all states are the same, I'm in Oregon.

I would never take advantage of a system glitch like that. For one, I know my card is linked to me, but even if it happened inadvertently, I'd return to the store and/or call my worker the next day.

Imo, of course
 
I work at a grocery store in a small town and was working when the EBT system was down on Saturday...All I could imagine was the chaos that bigger stores, like WalMart would be experiencing...We had quite a few customers who knew nothing about the system being down until they got to the register and saw the signs we put up...most of the time, it wasn't a huge sale, so customers just paid with cash instead...the other times, we just had to put the stuff back because our system wouldn't give a balance for their card and we really had no way to document their sale... a lot of people have EBT cards in this town, I see people who honestly need the help & people that are essentially abusing the privilege...so I was prepared to deal with upset customers of both kinds--but luckily, no one gave me or the other checker a bad time..
 
I do hope the perishables were not put back in the coolers and freezers, but they probably were. I am so done with Walmart after having bought a pork roast and whole chicken that was bad. Walmart offered to replace the items but I told them NO, I wanted a full refund. No more shopping at Walmart for me!!

I am so sick of the fraud going on. I am older, retired, and live on my income. I do not have an EBT card. I know some people need it, but IMO should be limited to mothers with children, the disabled (and I mean HONESTLY disabled), and the elderly.

Why is it that I never qualify for any freebies? OTOH, I am thankful I manage well.
 
This just makes me sick. Walmart wasn't concerned about people being able to feed their family. They knew they were dealing with criminals and were afraid if they wouldn't let them steal their food they would get violent like the animals they are. They may have well had guns because they knew they were stealing and Walmart knew they were stealing but they were intimidated and fearful of what would happen if they didn't get what they wanted. How is that different then armed robbery?
 
Wal-Mart, Xerox blame each other for Louisiana shopping gone wild

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Xerox Corp blamed each other on Monday after Louisiana food stamp recipients stripped bare the shelves of some Walmart stores when a computer glitch left their debit cards with no limits.

Managers of Walmart stores in the small, north Louisiana towns of Springhill and Mansfield alerted police on Saturday night that throngs of shoppers had flooded into the stores and were buying groceries using electronic benefit cards that contained no credit limits.

"Some people had eight or 10 shopping carts full of groceries," Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd said on Monday.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-foodstamps-hoarding-20131014,0,5377514.story

:notgood:
 
Skagirl said:
We had quite a few customers who knew nothing about the system being down until they got to the register and saw the signs we put up...
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Your manager should have been smart enough to put the signs on the front DOORS so people found out before they filled up their carts.

I don't even know what an ebt card looks like (which is good as it would annoy me if I did) but I have learned that when someone is buying a ton of baby food and NOTHING else it is the taxpayer flipping the bill. I am sure others are using it too but the baby food thing is overtly obvious (and those folks will have a happier day if they don't make eye contact with me in line, they won't like the looks they get).
 
LaLaw2000 said:
I do hope the perishables were not put back in the coolers and freezers, but they probably were. I am so done with Walmart after having bought a pork roast and whole chicken that was bad. Walmart offered to replace the items but I told them NO, I wanted a full refund. No more shopping at Walmart for me!!

I am so sick of the fraud going on. I am older, retired, and live on my income. I do not have an EBT card. I know some people need it, but IMO should be limited to mothers with children, the disabled (and I mean HONESTLY disabled), and the elderly.

Why is it that I never qualify for any freebies? OTOH, I am thankful I manage well.
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I don't qualify, either. Got my letter last week. Sigh.

But luckily my DD does! Which is a huge relief because her dad lost his job and I haven't had any child support or insurance for her since June. It's been rough but now she can get back on her meds and I am so thankful!
 
flourish said:
The day your food benefits come in coincides with the last number of your SSN, so my $16 shows up in the third. Yep, I get food benefits. I work a full time job and hold a master's degree, but that $16 makes me a leech on society to some--for me, it's very helpful and I stretch it by shopping sales with coupons---I'm that lady :blush:

Don't worry, it'll go down to $11 next month so that's five less dollars my family is sucking away.

Sigh

It's people like these thieving rioter's that screw everything up.

The cash benefits come in on the first for everyone, I think. I don't need or qualify for those, but that's my understanding. I don't know if all states are the same, I'm in Oregon.

I would never take advantage of a system glitch like that. For one, I know my card is linked to me, but even if it happened inadvertently, I'd return to the store and/or call my worker the next day.

Imo, of course
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Hey, lady! $16 buys a lot of red beans and rice which is what we eat several nights a week in my home! It's yummy and nutritious. Every little bit helps, for sure. And I heart coupons, too!

Also we have a vegetable garden at my school and there are always baskets of produce in the faculty lounge for the taking. Organic, too! And the EC classrooms raise chickens so we can buy organic eggs from them very inexpensively.

All of that helps!

(((Hugs)))
 
My local news carried this story last night, and mentioned NOTHING of the $700 rung up or people leaving with 5-6 shopping carts full of goodies. Know what they said? That the stores "allowed" the customers to ring up up to $100 worth of stuff, and THAT's why they left the shopping carts full of stuff standing around. They made it sound like WalMart was, out of the goodness of their hearts, giving them the benefit of the doubt, and letting them purchase up to $100 worth of goods.

I wonder why my local news (in Cleveland) put such a benevolent spin on it, and said nothing of the near looting going on?
 
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