http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091015/D9BB7CGG1.html
Lottery hoax causes riot at Ohio coat store
Oct 14, 9:09 PM (ET)
By MEGHAN BARR
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - 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.
"Well, of course, people like to hear that," Deakins said. "Apparently they were in line calling relatives who were not at the store and told them to come."
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.
"She was telling people she won $1.5 million," Deakins said. "But it ends up she didn't win anything. She had no money to pay for anything."
About an hour later, Brown had the limousine driver take her to a bank to withdraw money, but she returned empty-handed, police Detective Steven Nace said. By then, store employees had called in two dozen police officers to handle the crowds.
Shopper Candace Jordan said she told Brown she didn't need clothes, she needed help paying her rent.
"And she said, 'How much is it?'" Jordan told WBNS-TV. "And she promptly wrote out a check."
By the time employees realized Brown didn't have any cash to pay, police said, she already had taken off in the limo.
That's when angry customers, realizing they weren't getting free coats, began throwing merchandise on the floor and grabbing clothes without paying for them, Nace said.
"Everybody was like, 'I still want my free stuff,' and that started the riot," he said. "It looks like (Hurricane) Katrina went through the store."
Police said they have no way of tracking down the customers who stole items and fled, but they're reviewing surveillance video.
When the limousine driver realized he wasn't going to be paid the $900 Brown owed him for the day's rental, he turned her in to police, Deakins said.
Brown, 44, was arrested on three outstanding warrants for aggravated menacing, misuse of a 911 system and causing false alarms. She was jailed late Wednesday, but no charges had been filed against her related to the coat store chaos pending a mental health evaluation.
Police said they didn't know if Brown had a lawyer. No telephone number was listed under her name, and no one answered repeated phone calls at the Franklin County Jail.
A spokeswoman for Burlington Coat Factory, which is based in Burlington, N.J., and has more than 300 stores across the country, said late Wednesday she couldn't comment on the incident.
6 comments:
Thank you Dutchman6, I needed a good yuk to start my day.
Hmmm. An individual promising the moon, free lunch, etc. turns out to be nothing more than a narcissistic fraud.
Gee, sounds mighty familiar. Think about it. -In depth, now.
Wonder what's going to happen in Detroit when those folks that lined up at Cobo for 'oBAMa' money find out they will get little or nothing?
Interesting, no?
bobcat
A dumbass walks into a business, lies to store employees and customers, and customers (some? most?) trash and steal from the *business*??
To me, there are two interesting aspects of this.
The fist is the thin veneer of civility. On one level, society, and its niceties, depend on the thin veneer of civility shared between people, organizations and governments (less so, on that last one...). It is the "I'll respect your expectations if you respect mine" attitude. Once that goes, all the rest is likely to follow, until met by a more powerful force. That unspoken, agreed-upon civility is what keeps us as orderly as we are.
Regarding "until met by a more powerful force"... the restraints of law enforcement, or individual effort, is applied AGAINST the force of anarchy that powers looting, killing, muggins, rapes....
When the veneer goes, we'll see both forces in contention.
When I first read this on Drudge, I scratched my head. It just sounds too convenient.
Since she's not really a millionaire, the limo isn't hers. So did she hire him? When? Clearly before she did the store. It's almost like some planning and thought went into this. Just like an...organized crime.
I wonder how many friends the "millionaire" had in the store at the time?
Conveniently, the police aren't going to be able to round up everyone who took something from the store. Leaving Burlington or their insurer eating a loss (which I'm sure doesn't help in the struggle to keep people employed). The lady herself will be charged with some disturbing the peace stuff, but probably not with the total cost of the event. She didn't steal all that stuff.
Wonder if there's some ACORNS in here?
I wouldn't be susprised at all of this is simply taken right out of the Rules for Radicals playbook. Or that it might be used again as "protest" for "social justice" or some other similarly vapid, empty phrase against "evil" big business.
Eric III
Some places, the veneer of civility is more like marine grade plywood. Others, what little was there has already rotted away with the HUD tenements that dot the landscape.
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