Americans this actually happened in the towns of Mansfield and Springhill, Louisiana, a power outage glitch occurred in their Wal-Mart stores causing a lift on the cap people were allowed to spend for their food stamp purchases. This glitch allowed a recipient to spend unlimited amounts because the lift spending limit was removed from their EBT cards; and when this happened, it caused a massive shopping spree.
A rumor glitch such as this gets around fast and the shoppers took advantage of the error.
Police were called to the Wal-Mart’s in Mansfield and Springhill on Saturday as shoppers stormed into the store and began cleaning out all the stores shelves. The Springhill Wal-Mart store’s manager communicated with the police for guidance regarding crowd control; and the police advised Wal-Mart they had the right to refuse service, but Wal-Mart’s corporate office told the store to allow customers to make the food purchases they wanted with the cards.
A Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd said some customers pushed more food into their buggies than a household refrigerator and freezer could possibly store.
Lynd stated, “He had seen people dragging 8 to 10 grocery carts full of food out of the store;” and saying, “The customers were “not” unruly and there were no fights or did there have to be any arrests made, but the mob scene was chaotic.”
“It was worse than Black Friday;” and adding, “It was worse than anything we’ve ever seen in this town. There was “no” food or any meats left on the shelves or in the meat freezers; and the grocery part of Wal-Mart was decimated.”
“Around 9 p.m. CT on Saturday, it was announced on the intercom that the computer system had been restored and card limits had returned to normal;” and customers walked away from their shopping carts, leaving them standing in the stores aisles,” Lynd said.
The Electronic Benefits Transfer system went down because the back-up generator failed on Saturday during a regularly-scheduled test, according to Xerox, a vendor for EBT system; and it affected the system in 17 states, where individuals and households access programs like Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Kevin Lightfoot, a Xerox spokesman, stated, “The loss of power triggered a preventative shutdown of the EBT system to protect its overall integrity; and while the system was restored within 22 minutes, the network experienced connectivity issues until their technical staff was able to re—establish full access just before 10 p.m. EST.”
Kayla Whaling, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the frenzied shopping in Louisiana “was isolated and is not representative of what was experienced by Wal-Mart’s across the country.”
Xerox has indicated it will continue to “investigate the cause of the problem and they will take the proper steps to ensure similar interruptions will not occur.”
Writer of this article is Barbara Kasey Smith based on an ABC News Report.
Source:
ABC News Report