Suspicious Cargo Destined for New Orleans

A man at Home Depot in Panama City, Florida comes across what appears to be a large amount of generators that are about to be shipped to New Orleans.

He claims to know the store very well and that he was there the day before and these generators were not there. He also seems to believe it has to do with the sink hole in Louisiana. I'm in no way endorsing this man's claims but thought I should post this to get member opinion if this is normal or not. The author of this video does not think this is normal as you can tell by his reaction.

He does seem a bit paranoid and his claims are rather "out there" but I thought it was worthy of sharing nonetheless.

please ignore the title of this video!



Either this guy is on to something or he has an over active imagination, I think it may be a bit of both as it does seem odd to have so many generators in one location that are in preparation for transport to another location.

It could be something as simple some type of FEMA disaster preparedness...

Yeah, that does seem odd. Why are they storing all those in the store in FL if they are for New Orleans?

And that is a lot of generators. I am a homeowner, so I frequent home depot and the likes, and they don't keep that many generators on hand in one store.

Wierd. Nice find!

reply to post by SunnyDee


I also thought it was rather odd to have so many generators in one place. The fact that I live in a country with a much lower population density left me wondering maybe this is normal in places like the South East or Gulf coast, but what would they need them for?

Out here generators are valuable during winter storms because the power is often knocked out Louisiana is prone to hurricanes so this may be the reason but it's still suspicious. If someone were to provide a logical reason for all these being in one place I would then perhaps consider it less suspicious.

The guy doesn't seem too odd or paranoid to me. He's just kinda, "Hey that's weird. Gonna get that on video for the record. Wonder what they're for?"

Anyways, it is kinda odd. I'm sure Home Depot and other big-box retailers may drop a big load of stock at one location sometimes in order to solve some logistics issue they might have. So that part isn't ultra weird to me, but it does seem like a somewhat noteworthy decision was made to dump some genny's in the PCB,FL store.

The only weird part is that the bulk stock happens to be generators, and they are all labeled New Orleans. Granted, NOLA is one of those places that might sell a lot of generators... but this many? And why wouldn't they be shipped directly to the NOLA stores? If they are destined for NOLA, why drop them all off in PCB?

So yeah, it does seem a little odd. But not something I'm gonna freak out about until I know more. A lot more. lol

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


I don't think they would be for normal disaster preparedness. For one, Gulf Coast hurricane season is almost over; and two, most people across the Gulf Coast already have generators.

The only "normal" reason I can think of for so many generators to be sent to the New Orleans area would be if some business franchise decided that they wanted new generators to run maybe a few lights and a cash register at it's businesses. Anything else would require commercial generators- and they're not going to order those from Home Depot.
Even for an apartment complex they would get huge commercial generators and not smaller ones from a retail store.

If you find anything new please keep us updated!

Before we all jump to conclusions, it would not be uncommon to shift inventory around from one store to another in a chain of stores. It is common practice, especially where there is a need. While it may seem odd that they have generators in Panama Florida. If you look at a map, it would make sense, to have such built up in a city to make it a straight shot to New Orleans to move that product to.
New Orleans is a city like no other, hit by hurricanes on a regular basis. The number of generators would make sense if you consider that they would be used not only for home use but also business, and do not forget medical and other essential services. If anything it looks like there was a massive order put in and they are meeting that need, and using the Panama Florida as a staging area.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


I don't think anyone has jumped to a conclusion yet. Do you shop at Home Depot frequently? If so, have you ever seen that many generators in one store and marked for another store?

No conclusions, just observing something not seen before.

Lot's of assumptions being made here.

How does anyone know those are being shipped to New Orleans? They very well could have been shipped FROM New Orleans.

The guy in the video flat out claims that those weren't there yesterday. Home depot doesn't have a behind the scenes warehouse that they store stuff in the back, if they have it, it's on the floor. So it would be more logical to assume that this Home Depot just recieved all those generators and not that they are getting ready to ship them.

Is there any reason New Orleans might be shipping out generators? Well there was Hurricane Isaac that was targeting New Orleans but turned out to be kind of a flop. There was lots of hype and talks of a Katrina repeat, but that never happened. So it could be that the New Orleans Home Depots stocked up on too many generators and now they are shipping them out to other places.

Of course this is all assumption, but it is just an example to show that there are no facts in this video, and my assumption makes just as much (imo more) sense than the original one.

reply to post by SunnyDee

While I do not shop at Home Depot, (None where I live that is within a short distance) I have worked for chain based stores before, and what you are seeing is not uncommon. In a chain based business, sometimes they use one store as a staging area, drawing product from other stores invenotry to sit and then make one large shipment to save time and money. And if you consider that they have the prior years records as to what would be needed, thus it would stand to reason that they are being prepared for the upcoming hurricane season.

I would have to agree that having that much stock is not uncommon for a big chain store, BUT, I have been to various home improvement stores, (i have often wondered how many divorces originate from one of them??/!!!) And generators are not one of the big selling items, usually keep one or two in stock. That many generators, one can only speculate. It does make sense that they are being shipped to New Orleans, with the sink hole and all. But, my stance on all this is, no generators are going to be of help if any of the gas, butane, and radioactive waste decides to go BOOM. they ought to be shipping them to stores along the New Madrid. Anyway, just my point of view.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


NeW Orleans

just thinking outloud

Attention citizens of New Orleans!

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by Corruption Exposed

 

I don't think they would be for normal disaster preparedness. For one, Gulf Coast hurricane season is almost over; and two, most people across the Gulf Coast already have generators.

My first thought was that perhaps the city of New Orleans has recently fulfilled a requirement after Katrina to ensure that all places designated as shelters have a generator on hand.

Most acquisitions like this have a paper trail, and after a little searching I came across this...

Generator sales in light of Katrina

On the face of it it seems to be an attempt by one man to sell on the back of Katrina. But it seems likely to me that the State might have ordered these genny's recognizing that their shelters, schools, offices and so on were not prepared.

The likely explanation is that there is a requirement by the city to ensure that there are enough small generators to keep vital sites functional.

Of course, it could just be that the store is distributing their own stock to other regions. If they normally keep a three or four generators in stock, how many stores do they have in New Orleans? Couldn't this just be the store distributing their own stock from one store to others in another state?

After reading all this on Many websites about the Generator overstock .

I called Home Depote, spoke to the store management . Those are overstock from Isac .

Snding them to stores where they are needed, As they were not needed in Southern LA , This season .

No Doom here,

New Orleans is always having some kind of party or festival, those generators are probably for Bourbon Street so they can get sloshed for three days. Halloween is approaching, gotta generate those screaming skeleton floats somehow.

Originally posted by hbarker
After reading all this on Many websites about the Generator overstock .

I called Home Depote, spoke to the store management . Those are overstock from Isac .

Snding them to stores where they are needed, As they were not needed in Southern LA , This season .

No Doom here,

Quoting for the obvious answer. Give this man/woman a prize for thinking to actually call the store and ask them. Brilliant.

reply to post by detachedindividual


I think more than likely it would be for redistribution. Trying to hook up so many small generators to the electrical panels at a large shelter, school or office building would be unsafe and an electricians nightmare! Most of the police stations, hospitals, and large city buildings have huge commercial generators- especially since Katrina.

The only thing such small generators would be good for would be individual houses, small businesses or offices, or maybe even for traffic lights. Maybe possibly to run small pumps at various locations because of street flooding is another thing that comes to mind- they did that where I live during the last hurricane. The BIG pumps in New Orleans have their own generators; my husband worked on a few of them before (electrician).

Edit: Also good for running power tools during electrical outages.

Originally posted by hbarker
After reading all this on Many websites about the Generator overstock .

I called Home Depote, spoke to the store management . Those are overstock from Isac .

Snding them to stores where they are needed, As they were not needed in Southern LA , This season .

No Doom here,

Just in case someone missed the answer =) I want to make sure this poster gets credit for taking the initiative to actually call home depot. Crazy that, that solution isn't the first one to come to mind. What this website does to us I guess.

The sinkhole is about 60 miles from New Orleans, so I don't think that would be what it is at all, if it would be it for the sinkhole Baton Rouge is much closer than New Orleans.

Anyway I think this may be overstock from Isaac, and that maybe they came from New Orleans. I know plenty of stores around here were stocking up big time on generators, everyone has electricity back on now so they don't need them anymore. My neighbors were out of power for almost 2 weeks, they didn't have a generator tho. I know lots of people here were using generators INSIDE and having to go to the hospital,

Anyway I think they are sending generators they didn't sell to other stores.

Originally posted by sputniksteve

Originally posted by hbarker
After reading all this on Many websites about the Generator overstock .

I called Home Depote, spoke to the store management . Those are overstock from Isac .

Snding them to stores where they are needed, As they were not needed in Southern LA , This season .

No Doom here,

Just in case someone missed the answer =) I want to make sure this poster gets credit for taking the initiative to actually call home depot. Crazy that, that solution isn't the first one to come to mind. What this website does to us I guess.

Yes , Funny how those old phones still Do have a purpose eh