An apparently mentally disturbed woman pulled up to a Burlington Coat Factory in a rented Hummer limo, announced she had won the lottery and would pay for everyone’s purchases.
What bothers me the most is the reaction to the people in the store upon finding out the woman was lying. They trashed the store and ran out with merchandise. It’s not the store’s fault, so why the rage? It’s not like they lost any money. They were right where they started BEFORE the woman walked into the store and announced “Coats for everyone!”
It seems to me that the store was at least partly at fault: they should have checked that this woman had the money before they started ringing up purchases. But I agree, trashing the store is still excessive. The store would have lost the goods that went out before they realised she wasn’t paying, and the staff would still have had to tidy up by putting the unbought clothes back on the shelves or racks.
If I was in a store and someone announced that they were paying for everyone’s purchases, I’d think it was some kind of scam or candid camera stunt. I wonder about the mentality/mindset of the shoppers in this case. They really thought were going to get that stuff for free? Did the crazy woman look like Oprah or something?