There are at least seven documented cases of meth users who have decided to concoct their drug of choice in or near their local Walmart. Low prices, convenience, 24-hr scrutiny from employees and customers...what could possibly go wrong?
Three mobile methamphetamine labs were discovered in Walmart parking lots:
- In Pennsylvania, police investigated after a car hit a Ford Windstar van and the driver left the scene. Inside the van, they found lab equipment and 39 year-old Felix Ferrer Jr., who was sleeping.
- In Tennessee, police busted a lab after investigating an argument occurring inside a car in the store parking lot. Five people were arrested, and had traveled out of their home county to purchase pseudophedrine.
- In South Carolina, police found drug-making paraphernalia when they searched the car of two people suspected of shoplifting a bag of candy.
There are also three cases of people using “shake and bake” method for cooking meth (utilizing a plastic bottle and pills containing pseudophedrine) inside various Walmarts: one in Alabama, one in Oklahoma, and another in Missouri. Both the Alabama and Oklahoma incidents occurred in the stores' bathroom. The Missouri case was particularly notable as the woman was initially caught shoplifting. She “began to make meth in the loss prevention office” while awaiting local law enforcement.
In the final case, a Kentucky man passed out in a Walmart bathroom while toting a back pack full of meth-making materials. Police were alerted after he was discovered by employees. When the officers were unable to wake him, they searched his belongings. It was uncertain if he had been stealing materials from the store.
Comments