The Walmart Duck-and-Run
To avoid catching a stray bullet, or getting caught in a crossfire between cops and robbers or robbers and robbers, people know to stay out of certain neighboroods of the inner city, especially at night. Since criminals follow the money, and the police follow the criminals, shoppers can now catch a bullet in broad daylight in the parking lots of shopping malls and Walmart stores all across the country. Except for consumers who buy everything online, suburban shopping has become a form of risk taking. (Online shoppers, with identify theft and the like, have their own problems.) While most retail shoppers are probably aware they are entering spaces where bullets fly, they take the risk because we live in a consumer society. The saying, "shop until you drop," has a new, more ominious meaning.
Late in the afternoon of Monday, January 2, shots rang out in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Modesto, California. Three Latino men, after an argument (apparently of a racial nature) with two black men and two black women, fired on their adversaries. While several bullets went into a parked car, no one was shot. By the time the police arrived, the shooters had fled the immediate area. A SWAT team rolled up to the scene, and with a police helicopter hovering overhead, officers evacuated 200 customers to make certain the shooters weren't hiding in the store. They were not in the building.
Consumers at the Modesto scene brushed off the event and continued shopping. To a reporter, a shopper said, "I don't feel any less safe. Walking out my front door is a danger." Another consumer minimized the shooting incident as something that has become commonplace in the city.
In recent years, Modesto, a city of 200,000, has had a high rate of violent crime. The police in Modesto shot eight people in 2010. In 2011, they shot four. For a town this size, that's a lot of police involved shootings. In 2011, Modesto ranked number 4 on the Forbes Magazine list of America's 20 most miserable cities. I guess the residents of this town aren't about to let a parking lot shootout mar an otherwise good Walmart outing.
Other Parking Lot Shootouts
In Danbury, Connecticut, a few days before Christmas, an argument in the Walmart parking lot between two men over a woman led to one of the combatants being shot in the back. Unoccupied vehicles in the lot were hit by stray bullets. The shooter and the woman left the scene before the police arrived. That night, while the shooting victim underwent treatment at a local hospital, the police arrested the shooter and his girlfriend.
In San Leandro, California, between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, the Walmart Parking lot was the scene of two shootouts. In the first, a customer was shot during a robbery, and in the second, a man was shot as he smoked a cigarette in a parked car.
At a Walmart store in Jacksonville, Florida, an employee was shot in the face when he tried to help a co-worker who was arguing in the parking lot with her boyfriend. When the boyfriend pulled a gun, the co-worker produced his gun and shot the boyfriend in the leg. No one died in the duel. Because the incident took place at five in the morning, there weren't many shoppers around.
At 5:30 AM, two days after Christmas, two men shot at each other in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Hampton, Virginia. The man who was hit managed to drive his car 15 miles before he stopped in the middle of the street and passed out. Although seriously injured, he survived the shooting. Back at the store, because the parking lot had become the scene of a crime, customers were detained in the building for several hours.
Those Crazy Walmartians
On Christmas eve in Monticello, Indiana, a 64-year-old woman with a cast on her right foot, lost control of her SUV. The monster vehicle lurched wildly about the Walmart parking lot, crashing into eleven parked cars before a fellow Walmartian jumped into the runaway vehicle and grabbed the ignition key. While there was plenty of property damage, no one was hurt.
Just before noon on the day before Christmas, Jacquetta Simmons, as she left the Walmart store in Batavia, New York, punched and knocked down the 70-year-old greeter who asked the 26-year-old Walmartian to show her receipts for items in her shopping bags. After assaulting the Walmart greeter, Simmons ran out of the store. A posse of Walmart employees gave chase, surrounding her in the parking lot until the police showed up. Charged with second-degree assault for fracturing the left side of the greeter's face, Simmons was placed in the Genesse County Jail on $20,000 bond. As it turned out, Simmons had receipts for everything in her bags. Apparently she just didn't like being challenged by this greeter. Merry Christmas. (I once thought the Walmart greeter's job was so easy that even someone like me could do it as a retirement gig. I am no longer interested, and will not be auditioning for the job.)
On November 17, Michael Anthony Fuller, in an effort to pay for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven, and a few other items at the Walmart store in Lexington, North Carolina, tendered a fake (obviously) $ l million bill. The cashier took the gesture as a prank, but Fuller insisted that the bill was real. Someone called the cops who arrested Fuller for attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged document. (I don't get the last charge--how can one forge a fake document?)
Since there is no such thing as a $1 million bill, Mr. Fuller will not be charged with the federal crime of counterfeiting. In 1969, the government discontinued printing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills. Currently, the $100 bill is the largest denomination in circulation. Although it is hard to believe, Mr. Fuller is not the first person who has tried to pass a $1 million bill.
To avoid catching a stray bullet, or getting caught in a crossfire between cops and robbers or robbers and robbers, people know to stay out of certain neighboroods of the inner city, especially at night. Since criminals follow the money, and the police follow the criminals, shoppers can now catch a bullet in broad daylight in the parking lots of shopping malls and Walmart stores all across the country. Except for consumers who buy everything online, suburban shopping has become a form of risk taking. (Online shoppers, with identify theft and the like, have their own problems.) While most retail shoppers are probably aware they are entering spaces where bullets fly, they take the risk because we live in a consumer society. The saying, "shop until you drop," has a new, more ominious meaning.
Late in the afternoon of Monday, January 2, shots rang out in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Modesto, California. Three Latino men, after an argument (apparently of a racial nature) with two black men and two black women, fired on their adversaries. While several bullets went into a parked car, no one was shot. By the time the police arrived, the shooters had fled the immediate area. A SWAT team rolled up to the scene, and with a police helicopter hovering overhead, officers evacuated 200 customers to make certain the shooters weren't hiding in the store. They were not in the building.
Consumers at the Modesto scene brushed off the event and continued shopping. To a reporter, a shopper said, "I don't feel any less safe. Walking out my front door is a danger." Another consumer minimized the shooting incident as something that has become commonplace in the city.
In recent years, Modesto, a city of 200,000, has had a high rate of violent crime. The police in Modesto shot eight people in 2010. In 2011, they shot four. For a town this size, that's a lot of police involved shootings. In 2011, Modesto ranked number 4 on the Forbes Magazine list of America's 20 most miserable cities. I guess the residents of this town aren't about to let a parking lot shootout mar an otherwise good Walmart outing.
Other Parking Lot Shootouts
In Danbury, Connecticut, a few days before Christmas, an argument in the Walmart parking lot between two men over a woman led to one of the combatants being shot in the back. Unoccupied vehicles in the lot were hit by stray bullets. The shooter and the woman left the scene before the police arrived. That night, while the shooting victim underwent treatment at a local hospital, the police arrested the shooter and his girlfriend.
In San Leandro, California, between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, the Walmart Parking lot was the scene of two shootouts. In the first, a customer was shot during a robbery, and in the second, a man was shot as he smoked a cigarette in a parked car.
At a Walmart store in Jacksonville, Florida, an employee was shot in the face when he tried to help a co-worker who was arguing in the parking lot with her boyfriend. When the boyfriend pulled a gun, the co-worker produced his gun and shot the boyfriend in the leg. No one died in the duel. Because the incident took place at five in the morning, there weren't many shoppers around.
At 5:30 AM, two days after Christmas, two men shot at each other in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Hampton, Virginia. The man who was hit managed to drive his car 15 miles before he stopped in the middle of the street and passed out. Although seriously injured, he survived the shooting. Back at the store, because the parking lot had become the scene of a crime, customers were detained in the building for several hours.
Those Crazy Walmartians
On Christmas eve in Monticello, Indiana, a 64-year-old woman with a cast on her right foot, lost control of her SUV. The monster vehicle lurched wildly about the Walmart parking lot, crashing into eleven parked cars before a fellow Walmartian jumped into the runaway vehicle and grabbed the ignition key. While there was plenty of property damage, no one was hurt.
Just before noon on the day before Christmas, Jacquetta Simmons, as she left the Walmart store in Batavia, New York, punched and knocked down the 70-year-old greeter who asked the 26-year-old Walmartian to show her receipts for items in her shopping bags. After assaulting the Walmart greeter, Simmons ran out of the store. A posse of Walmart employees gave chase, surrounding her in the parking lot until the police showed up. Charged with second-degree assault for fracturing the left side of the greeter's face, Simmons was placed in the Genesse County Jail on $20,000 bond. As it turned out, Simmons had receipts for everything in her bags. Apparently she just didn't like being challenged by this greeter. Merry Christmas. (I once thought the Walmart greeter's job was so easy that even someone like me could do it as a retirement gig. I am no longer interested, and will not be auditioning for the job.)
On November 17, Michael Anthony Fuller, in an effort to pay for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven, and a few other items at the Walmart store in Lexington, North Carolina, tendered a fake (obviously) $ l million bill. The cashier took the gesture as a prank, but Fuller insisted that the bill was real. Someone called the cops who arrested Fuller for attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged document. (I don't get the last charge--how can one forge a fake document?)
Since there is no such thing as a $1 million bill, Mr. Fuller will not be charged with the federal crime of counterfeiting. In 1969, the government discontinued printing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills. Currently, the $100 bill is the largest denomination in circulation. Although it is hard to believe, Mr. Fuller is not the first person who has tried to pass a $1 million bill.
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