Lottery hoax causes Huge riot at Ohio coat store - Unbelieavable!!!

A woman being driven around in a rented limousine pulled up at a coat store and announced she'd won the lottery and would pay for everyone's purchases, police said, but she ended up causing a riot when customers realized it was a hoax.

Angry customers threw merchandise around and looted, leaving the store looking as though a hurricane had passed through it, police said.

Linda Brown was arrested Tuesday after an hours-long shopping spree that began when she hired a stretch Hummer limousine to drop her off at a Burlington Coat Factory store, police Sgt. Lt. Michael Deakins said. Brown walked to a cash register and loudly announced she had won the lottery and would pay for each person's merchandise up to $500, he said.

People flooded the registers as cashiers began ringing up purchase after purchase, but Brown had not yet paid the bill, Deakins said. At least 500 people filled the aisles and another 1,000 were outside trying to get in, he said.

www.sfgate.com.../n/a/2009/10/14/financial/f171753D81.DTL&tsp=1


WOW, I mean WOW

Now listen to this
this says alot, this means that a random group of people in a random area in a random store, almost 100% of people went completely crazy and it seems a large majority of people behaved as thieves.

I mean if you look at it that way, it's even crazier than the story depicts it.

It's not like you will most likely find a whole lot of thieves at a random coat store.... right?

I mean................. right?????

You've obviously never been to a Burlington Coat Factory.
Probably one on the wrong side of the tracks...and since its Ohio I think the whole state is on the wrong side of the tracks from my experiences.

yea this ticked me off when i seen this,i seen the original news coverage of this and thought... this lady is crazy saying she didnt want any of her winnings and went to the store to give it away. She even wrote a lady a check to help pay her rent.. just think how that lady feels now... thinking she had her rent covered.

and then these dumba***s go and sack the store.. arrest them all all of them were on the news so you have video I.D.

The world.... is obviously desperate.

So many people 'actually' believed what someone said on the campaign trail.

So many people 'actually' trusted and believed that some nobody was going to buy stuff for them... common sense was really out the window there.

This is why i'm against 'believers', lol.

In the end, there's just a riot, what they should've done was kicked themselves in the face. Repeatedly.

Originally posted by atzmaz
You've obviously never been to a Burlington Coat Factory.
Probably one on the wrong side of the tracks...and since its Ohio I think the whole state is on the wrong side of the tracks from my experiences.

Woah. Whats wrong with Ohio? Must of been a terrible experience. I like it.

As for the OP. I heard the story on the War room this morning. The mass of people are idiots. Why ransack the store? It wasn't their fault! They should've just said "Oh well, no big deal." But instead, you have the oblivious, ignorant, and un-intelligent people starting trouble that should've never been there.

My opinion, this proves a good theory. A single person is sane. A group of people, now that where ignorant chaos begins.

This is just a sign of things to come. This is reminiscent of a recent story in Detroit where greedy, small minded "people" went crazy over a government handout.

Like it or not, there is revolution bubbling and brewing just under the surface. People feel cheated by the banks and disillusioned by the government. They are looking for any excuse to vent their anger and believe me, it is coming. It will make the LA riots look like playground scrap.

I'm never pro-handouts and never will. Handouts are the government's solution in third world countries hence they remain third world. These politicians get voted if they give alms and it continues forever. The poor think that they're loved by the government. Slaves forever.

Short sighted solutions tend to hit their heads on the nearest pole.

They probably started looting the store because they felt they were owed something since it turned out to be a hoax. People are ridiculous, last year in Long Island someone was trampled to death when a mob of shoppers broke through the Wal Mart door on the day after Thanksgiving. Of course, they kept on shopping.

People get into a frenzy, they feel they "have to get theirs" before anyone else. It's an irrational mob mentality that seems to trigger rather quickly.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Well, I couldn't read the entire article because the link didn't go right to it, and I didn't feel like searching the site.

All I have to say is I hope the woman that did this stunt is charged with inciting a riot, and that she has to pay for damages and what was stolen.

On the same token, those that looted deserve a few days in jail, also.

I can't believe people fell for this.

Nothing is ever free! NOTHING!

I couldn't have said it better.

Originally posted by Shadowflux
People get into a frenzy, they feel they "have to get theirs" before anyone else. It's an irrational mob mentality that seems to trigger rather quickly.

People have this mentality of "ME FIRST" "FRAK everyone else!!"
Especially when one person does something wrong, all of a sudden the rules go out the window and it becomes acceptable for everyone else.
This group dynamic is rather disturbing and indicative of non conscious people.
This is a sad state.
I don't blame them entirely though.
This is the mentality bred by years of brainwashing by various sources.
"ENTITLEMENT" at its worst.

Just goes to show that people are gullible and will believe anything without asking for any proof whatsoever...Sound familiar ATSers?

Then when they discover they have been duped, they keep going with the theme...trying to force it to be real.

Just my 2-cents

[edit on 15-10-2009 by Aggie Man]

I live in Columbus Ohio and they should have called the police on the woman as soon as she entered the store and started claiming she won the lottery and was going to buy stuff for people. She has suffered with some sort of mental illness since she was 18 years old according to her daughter and the local news here.
As for the crowd and people going crazy, there are no jobs here and our unemployment rate for the state is well above 10% so that says it all.