Another Reason to Hate WalMart
Penny Winters has worked for several years at WalMart. But, WalMart caught this thief red handed last week. She was fired and charged with a felony after the 63 year old Winters got caught eating “multiple” Oreos while on the job.
A subsequent review of surveillance footage showed “Ms. Winters select the package of cookies, open it, and proceed to consume multiple cookies during her work shift,” according to a Portage Police Department report.
Cops did not estimate the value of the “multiple cookies” consumed by Winters, who has been fired from her $11.40 position with the retail giant.
She admitted guilt but said that she found an open package by the cash register and ate the cookies.
Sometimes at WalMart Les Miserables looks like a pleasant time in Paris.
Thanks to Brian for the heads up.
A FELONY! For a bag of [opened] cookies? Is that legal? And which Portage, as several states have a Portage, and there is a walleyed world in each of them.
1Stopped shopping in Walmart about 2 years ago. Have not regretted it.
2Those must have been the Indian Oreos with the gold leaf in the filling.
3This gets a bit difficult because of the crosscurrents that muddy the water. It’s more than Jean Valjean being sent to hard labor for stealing one loaf of bread, because the lady admitted doing this more or less weekly for four years. Does a one-time theft versus regular misappropriation make a difference? Does it make a difference that she worked for WalMart rather than a mom and pop store? What if every store employee at a business – large or small – helped themselves to the merchandise without paying? I bartended in my senior year in college and the manager caught a fellow employee one night skimming the register. I don’t see a whole lot of difference between that guy and this woman.
4I’m more appalled that she would eat cookies from an opened package she found by the register.
5I have always considered Oreos a brain poison. This proves it!
6Walmart treats their employees like crap. That’s why there is such a large turnover. Their benefits for employees are beyond laughable and useless. Wal Mart has even taken out life insurance policies on their employees and made Wal Mart the beneficiary in states where that is legal. Sam Walton is spinning in his grave.
7Reminds me of the grocery manager I spoke to once who said he didn’t mind if we showed up at the register with an empty cookie box and carton of milk as long as we payed for them.
But I agree that it would take an awful lot of Oreos to make a felony.
WakeUp, I hadn’t heard about the life insurance scam. Sam’s gonna rattle chains in someone’s bedroom, for sure.
8Not to mention that Wal-Mart heirs back the voucher movement with $$.
9@ Susan. It’s not a unusual practise. It’s called the Dead Peasant Insurance policy. What is really cool is they give you substandard health insurance, if any, so their chances of a dead employee lotto go up.
10Yep, it’s called “dead peasant insurance.”
http://americablog.com/2011/08/dead-peasant-insurance-a-comment-on-the-rick-perry-dead-teachers-scheme.html
11Ate about a dozen Oreos yesterday. Should have seen my stool this morning. Apparently the artificial coloring doesn’t metabolize. WalMart posted 4Q earnings today & they’re down. They blame it on the payroll tax hike recently raised in the fiscal cliff deal. You know, the tax that funds SS that was lowered during the “fiscal crisis”. My opinion on their 4Q loss is that people are starting to shop elsewhere, if they can.
12I don’t go to Walmart. Don’t plan to either.
13Just saying.
So there.
In most states, Penny would’ve had to consume at least $500 of cookies to be charged with a felony!!
14I don’t shop at Walmart but I have a ton of options. A boat load of people no longer have those options because Walmart ran all alternatives out of town. What used to be provided by Mom and Pop local stores, filled in with semiannual orders to Sears and Roebuck and Mongomery Ward catalogs now belongs to the vultures at Walmarts. We hate ’em. We really do.
15“I bartended in my senior year in college and the manager caught a fellow employee one night skimming the register. I don’t see a whole lot of difference between that guy and this woman.”
@Umptydump…… you may be at the wrong place. If you don’t see the difference in eating a couple of cookies, getting arrested and charged with what???? “felony cookie eating”…. and helping yourself to money from the cash register.
This woman ate a few cookies from a package, already opened, and left at her register. Probably by some shopper, who had opened them, eaten a few, had enough, and decided not to pay for them. Where I live …the employee.. would have had to have eaten at least $500 worth to be a felony. Nobody has that much taste for cookies….. even with milk.
Wal Mart and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. This is one more to add to the list, of why I don’t shop there.
16Miemaw – it was every week for FOUR YEARS.
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/porter/18335978-418/wal-mart-employee-admits-long-time-stolen-oreo-habit.html
17Also, see http://www.myindianadefenselawyer.com/criminal-charges/theft-shoplifting/
In Indiana theft over $250 can be charged as a class D felony, and, regardless of amount, probably if the thefts can be established as repeated and chronic. In real life, however, this gal will probably wind up seeing the charge reduced to a misdemeanor and get a fine and probation. She may never get a job in retail again unless she lies on her employment app and no one does a background check.
18Oh, and don’t mistake my comments as any defense of Walmart. Our local Walmart is a filthy, pathetic dump, with employees who,probably have good reason never to smile. The difference between it and our local Target is night and day.
19We should all strive to stay out of Walmart and jail. I do so and if we all stoped shopping there they might stop treating their employees like expendable items.
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