EBT benefit card glitch sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana

reply to post by Thorneblood


I've tried to look at it from your point of view after reading your post and I just can't. That money isn't for the powers, xerox or walmart. That money belongs to me. I pay hella taxes every paycheck to assure that people have enough to live. What I see here are self entitled people indulging in greed.

To me, this is like saying:

I moved into a new apartment today. I couldn't carry all of my furniture in at one time, so I made 20 trips. Somewhere in all those trips, people ran up to my truck and stole half of my clothes, my TV, all of my food and left me with only the shelves.

You could say "you should have locked your truck". Because I didn't, does not mean that it wasn't theft? Those items were mine, and there was nothing saying "come and get it", but those people still took all they could carry when I couldn't find a way to fix not being able to carry all of my items up at once, or perhaps not able to have a lock on my truck. Maybe the lock was broken.

To me, this is the same thing that took place at WalMart.

...and I agree. Shame on WalMart for this! They should have known better.


Though, I do wonder why it was only noticed in LA. Did it just happen in LA?

Wow, initially I thought only the food balances were the glitch but after reading further into it cash balances also were affected. Those who abused this and stole will have to pay it back.

Wal-mart should be held accountable but they likely won't. Every transaction is tracked and those who think they just got a bunch of free stuff are fools.

reply to post by Arnie123


Xerox also handles a lot of the Speed Cameras in my area.

Interesting the contracts Xerox gets...

reply to post by Glassbender777


And I am sure that if you were on the benefit train or even found some money on the ground you would be right there in line with the others. dont give me the higher than thou thing its annoying. i get that you might be pissed that they got the extra cash and i understand that and yeah the government should be like HOLD ON YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF A SCREW UP ON OUR SIDE, but still to try and make it seem like you wouldn't do the same is a bit low.

I'm employed and pay tax to some degree in the UK, I could only wish that something like that fell into my lap and i think you should be willing and open enough to admit to the same thing.

I respect your opinion but like to disagree.

reply to post by StallionDuck

Walmart workers phoned their corporate headquarters to ask how they should handle all the shoppers with unlimited, government-funded spending limits, and were told to keep the registers ringing.

Walmart chose profits over prudence, they CHOSE to allow people to do as they would regardless of a lack of proper information about each person's balance. You are right in that it is your money, and you should be upset, but you have to see that when a company like Walmart skirts Obamacare laws by cutting hours they are also stealing from you. Since many of the employees who were "ringing the registers" are also likely on welfare and were just doing what they had to in order to stay employed they can't be faulted. While i would certainly agree that there is some measure of fault in the people who took advantage of this i am still having a hard time seeing this as any different then what Gov's and Corp's do all the time.

They took advantage of a situation for profit. That's America.

reply to post by Danny85


I collect food stamps, not cash though via an EBT card. I know what my balance is on any given day and I would not have gone a shopping spree, I have morals.(though many seem to think anyone who is on food stamps is just some worthless bum who needs to find a job)

Since all those transactions are recorded via computer in multiple places, those who abused the glitch will not get away with it.

reply to post by jrod


Yeah true that, I'm actually awaiting word on the whole issue and see what happens.

My biggest thing is, what if the Gov only pays the full balance of that month, then tells Wal-Mart to F off for letting them do that, thus making Wal-Mart take in a huge loss, well its two stores, so a drop in the bucket, just a terrible waste though.

After math would be interesting indeed.

When determining intent or motive here keep in mind that when Wal-Mart announced over their p.a. that the ebt cards were once again showing correct balances these theives abandoned their overflowing carts and fled the scene of the crime.

AbleEndangered
reply to post by Arnie123

 

Xerox also handles a lot of the Speed Cameras in my area.

Interesting the contracts Xerox gets...

--
Yeah no kidding, a jack of all trades kind of company. I wouldn't be surprised if they had military contracts, lol.

abe froman
When determining intent or motive here keep in mind that when Wal-Mart announced over their p.a. that the ebt cards were once again showing correct balances these theives abandoned their overflowing carts and fled the scene of the crime.

--
They sure did flee the scene didn't they? I wonder how that happened btw, I mean how did word of mouth get out that there was a glitch with unlimited spending??? I guess these people have their network....

The way that the EBT program where I live works is that you can only buy food -- and only certain KINDS of food. People on foodstamps here can't get anything pre-cooked from the deli and any kind of energy drinks.

I would find it pretty hard to spend $700 on just boring food.

Now, if the glitch made it possible to buy TV's and video games ...

I'd be heading to the electronics department first.

reply to post by MystikMushroom

Anybody who bought a nice shiny & new television set off of Craigslist in LA should probably check their source to make sure it wasn't stolen. They too, will be held accountable if found out.

reply to post by Thorneblood


You're making it seem like we're "OK" with our idiot politicians and government when you know damn well the majority of ATS (and thanks to numerous polls, the majority of the U.S.) are anything but OK with the government.

So your statement is obtuse, and intentionally so.

I'd go as far to say that the people that took advantage of the EBT's at Walmart are the exact same kind of trash that's in the White house and Washington. Both of these groups of people are filth, relying on other people's hard earned tax money to spend on themselves. (I'm not taking in honest EBT users here, but those like the article talks about.)

So please, spare me.

reply to post by MystikMushroom

EBT cards have a food balance and a cash balance. The cash balance is supposed to be for things like diapers and much tougher to qualify for, but those who receive free cash can spend it on whatever they want including booze, cigs, lottery tickets, or use the cash to go see their dope man. When this glitch happened both the Food balances and cash balances had no limit prompting the shopping spree and that is how people were buying electronics.

It would be one thing if Wal-Mart only allowed food to be purchase during the glitch, corporate Wal-Mart knew about the glitch and enabled those to abuse it.

reply to post by jrod


If you think I am attacking people on food stamps then you are wrong, that was never my intention and i dont do that sort of thing and believe that most who need help should get help and you may have morals but i cant help thinking the way i do. i stand by my opinion and yeah i dont know you at all other than what had been put on here and cant say anything about your character and morals but again i still think that when push come to shove most at the least 99 percent would do the same, and the one percent left over dont need to because they are richer than they need to be but again last thing, i would never attack those people who need help that is what the system is for and yeah i can get that there are people who would use this opportunity to buy things but right now they are being attacked on a daily basis both in the states and in the UK, being labeled bums.

this seems to be one of the few discrimination that is still accepted world wide. there are ways of changing things but when you use these people who mostly need help or cant live on less than minimum wage they are attacked and bullied and put down like the worst of humanity it makes me enraged, and do you know what if they dont get caught out then good maybe they shouldn't get in trouble for it, maybe the person who f'd up and made the mistake should be sacked and made to pay everything back why should the people who just took advantage be the ones punished.

its time that people stopped listening to the bull that rolls from politicians mouths, i am honest to the fact that i would have more than likely done the same thing as the BUMS that so many people like to call them and i am proud enough to admit it. but some people dont and that's fine whether you've got morals or not i still believe that somewhere inside you know that if you found an extra hundred quid in your bank, on the street or anywhere you would snap that up and not stop a local Bobbie (cop) and offer to hand it in. but that's just my thoughts.

reply to post by Auricom


My statement is only obtuse if you still believe that your vote will change anything in 2014/2016. The only way this all changes, the only way things get better is if they first get worse. Much worse. The only thing that will save us now is a lot of death and a lot of violence.

We have the guns, we have the numbers but we don't have the stones to change what needs to be changed. So we will spit and hiss, bitch and whine, and when the election cycle comes around again we will all stand in line and press a button for the next batch of liars and thieves.

First blame the politicians, then blame yourselves for voting them into office.

We gave them the power, and we can take it away, but only with force not politics.

jjkenobi
I see one shopping cart with two or three LCD tv's in it! This is no different than looting in my opinion.

Yeah, well surely that still photo is from Christmas time, and misrepresented as being from the "shopping spree."
I do not think you can buy anything but food with a food stamp card.

reply to post by ecapsretuo


Not true. Some people get a cash balance as well as a food balance. They can even withdraw funds at an ATM, read my above posts.

reply to post by Danny85


I didn't think were attacking people on EBT(food stamps). There are plenty of people here and the rest of the cyber world who do.

This is much different than finding cash on the ground or extra funds you forgot about in the bank. Each month EBT recipients are allocated x amount of money for food and some get y amount of money in free cash. The amount is based on one's needs and dependents. Unless a recipient is mentally challenged they know how much they get each month. When the glitch happened the EBT transactions went through even though the funds were exhausted and many took advantage of this.

Lets say you had a credit card with a $1000 limit on it and there was some glitch that didn't deny you when you reached your limit and you decided to rack up $10,000 because you can. Surely you would be expected to pay off the $10,000 you racked up even though your limit was only supposed to be $1000. That is how I see this situation. Those who took advantage of the glitch need to be held accountable.

reply to post by jrod


Oh i thought you thought i was insulting those on benefits, now i live in the UK as i have said so i dont know everything about how the benefit system works in the states, and yeah those who took advantage will probably be moaned at but they will not be made to pay back the money because it will lose certain politicians votes but again i would have done the same thing.

My point about an extra hundred in the bank wasn't that it had been forgotten about what i meant was (and this has happened to me) when the bank adds money to your account by mistake and dont take it back before i go to the bank next, and then you or the person who has the account needs to make the decision and most people would take the money even though they would most likely have to pay it back.

my main point about people taking the money is that these people (if i am correct) depend on the little money that they get and for how ever long they've been living off the amount they saw a chance to get something that they wanted and didn't think they could afford to get. and i think while they should have known not to do it, they didn't see why they shouldn't. And once more i agree, i would have spent as much as possible.