Food Stamp Card Failure Incites Shopper Frenzy at Walmart Stores.

A flash mob of shoppers raided stores impacted by a technical glitch in the federal food stamp program this past weekend, but taxpayers will not have to foot the bill.

Shelves were cleared at two Louisiana Walmart stores Saturday as a system failure for electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards incited a shopping frenzy. EBT cards are much like debit cards, allowing purchases tied to benefits issued through the federal food stamps program, which offers low-income families assistance in purchasing groceries.

Xerox implements the federal card program and reported a service outage Saturday, October 12, that prevented the reporting of benefit limits on EBT cards in 17 states. Shoppers in most affected states were turned away, but two Wal-Mart stores in Louisiana allowed unlimited purchases during the outage.

Due to overwhelming crowds, police were ultimately called in to assist store employees. When the technical issue was resolved at 9 p.m. and a store announcement was made saying the cards were back online, shoppers abandoned their packed shopping carts and left. No arrests were reported.
Springhill, La. police chief Will Lynd told Shreveport television station KSLA that when the EBT system was restored, one woman was detained, because she had attempted to purchase $700 of groceries with only a 49 cent credit on her card. She was held by police until Walmart authorities said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.

According to a notice posted on The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services website, all transactions are recorded.

"While transactional systems maintained by DCFS contractors may have been impacted by today's outage, the systems that DCFS uses to track EBT card usage and identify fraud were still in place," the notice says. "DCFS vigorously investigates all fraud claims. Anyone suspected of fraudulently using public assistance benefits are investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Trey Williams, a spokesman for DCFS, told the Baton Rouge Advocate that taxpayers would not be responsible for any false benefits claimed.

"No funds from our standpoint were utilized," Williams said. "The safeguards the state had in place worked. Any recoupment would be from a retailer standpoint."

Kayla Whaling, a spokesperson for Walmart, told KSLA that the company was "fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage."

"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards - and purchases on WIC and SNAP - during the outage so that they could get food for their families," Whaling said.

that's as I remember, those cards will hold purchases just like a debit, even if available balance was not working,,,,

so,who will pay for the Muckup?

My understanding is Xerox has a clause in the EBT contract stating that if there's a problem like this, that they are supposed to shut it down. That's what other companies did.

But like the people with EBT cards didn't know, that should be considered theft right there in my opinion.

This muckup is going to put a whole new meaning to (oh) SNAP

Why would so many people who are just trying to feed their children want to steal food in such a frenzy? They must have been really hungry.

starved even!

we don't really have a number of how many were 'stealing',,,

its possible to fill a cart without having to steal anything

but fortunately, those responsible will be held responsible...

Glitch my Hip!

Oh come on. You know all of them were stealing.
Did you see the video and pics of the shelves empty?
That doesn't happen on the 1st of the month when the cards are reloaded.
And after they found out the system was back up and running the slobs left all the full carts in the isles. You gonna tell me that they all had enough on their cards to buy what was in their carts? If so why leave them?

you gonna tell me NONE of them had enough to have a cart full of food?


I don't 'know' anything except the system went down and shelves were emptied


I Certainly have no reason to ASSume 'all of them' were stealing,,,


IM sure there were those who had enough to buy what was in their carts (no picture of every customer or every cart of every customer exists to my knowledge)


it would only take SOME TO have been stealing to achieve the result, others could have purchased had a months worth of food where they would only usually have only bought a week,,,,makes a difference in the size of the cart


it would be not unheard of to leave BECAUSE of the crowding and chaos

and


as to stealing,, of course people stole, was 'everyone' or even most people guilty of such a thing though?

there is NO WAY to know,,,,until they review what was purchased against what was allotted on the cards,,,

A felony theft conviction will ban recipients for life from the EBT program.

Hope it was worth the fun they had.

something we agree on

this type of fraud on a government program will get you banned
those who are guilty of going over their allotment made a dumb choice

How To Work The Welfare System
Training Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tyMtHa-WKnM

LMFAO!

proof that any idiot can post information to a youtube video

who would want their kids growing up in the dangerous areas most of those 'free homes' are in,,

ignorance isn't just amongst the elite,, Ill never claim that the impoverished don't have their ignorant too,,,

This one was there too....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luo40WjBKWI

I like it!

FYI.
That free housing is anywhere Section 8 is accepted.
I personally know folks who live in fine homes, in great areas and pay 0 dollars per month.

the exception and not the rule

vouchers have caps for the rental amount based upon area and size of the home

so , a family of 2, is not likely to live in a 'nice' area or any area where people are paying more than 1000 per month,,,