Wal★Mart "Fun"

This is my brother Cole. He is 6'2" and has short, curly brown hair.

 

 This is the Wal★Mart Supercenter in Riverton where Cole works. It is a huge building with tan bricks and a massive parking lot.

Remember that now.

Here's what happened on Saturday the 15th of September:

My brother's truck was broken down so Mom and Betty took him to work that day -- I was in the car too because I was going to a charity event for newborns in the ICU to sell bracelets and donate the profit. We dropped him off and proceeded to Midvale where the charity event was.

Fifteen minutes into Cole's shift at around 4:15 pm a group of three teens/young adults went into the store. At least one of them was carrying pepper spray, or some similar sort of irritant, and began to spray up and down the aisles on the floor -- according to Cole it might've been about half the store. Soon the irritant began to spread and people started to feel the effects: itchy and watery eyes, scratchy throat, and coughing. Cole was in the back room unloading trucks of merchandise and didn't feel the full effects of the mace, which is really lucky because he's an asthmatic. Still, he was having trouble breathing and had to use his fast-acting inhaler to relieve some of the symptoms. Somehow some of the chemical got onto his face and he had to wash it off in the bathroom, while one of his coworkers actually used the chemical shower.

The employees evacuated the store for a "Chemical Spill" and Cole described it as almost 'Apocalyptic': "People just abandoned their carts with everything inside and ran out of the store." There were a couple of stragglers in the Automotive section who did not hear the alarm or the announcement to evacuate, but they were evacuated as well.

Approximately 80 people were affected and parts of the store were actually tented off to prevent additional spreading. Much of the perishable merchandise such as the produce were ruined and could not be sold (but luckily Cole and his coworkers were just unloading a truck of fresh produce, so people won't be cheated out of their fruits and vegetables for long) and the workers, both HazMat and Wal★Mart employees, spent a great deal of time and effort cleaning up the area. Abandoned carts were taken to claims so that shoppers could return for their merchandise if they wished and their perishables could be disposed of accordingly.

Yesterday they caught two suspects who were turned in by their parents for the crime. As far as I know at the moment the third is still at large.

The suspects thought it was a joke to spray pepper spray in Wal★Mart, but this is not a joke: it is an act of terrorism. They have been arrested.

So... yeah. Not so fun times at Wal★Mart, but certainly interesting. :I

EDIT: Okay, so I was misinformed about the suspects; the third one was apparently taken to the hospital as well because he too suffered from the pepper spray. :/