Everyone loves a great deal and when Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, dawns, the throngs of crazed couponers and deal grabbers are poised and ready. Mass mayhem almost always ensues. This year, the craziness started early. Wal-Mart locations started their deals on Thursday night at 10pm and other stores joined in. As always, the madness started when the sales began. In the past we have heard stories of hitting, screaming, throwing, and right-out meanness, but this year’s tales of woe top them all. Has the deal hunting drama perhaps crossed the line this time?
Crazed or Conniving?
Imagine standing in a crowd of people, waiting for your chance to grab a 50% off Xbox. Not a bad deal right? Now imagine reaching for the coveted game system and getting pepper sprayed by a charmer who feels that you might be trying to get the one she has already claimed. Now multiply that by 20. This is what happened at a Wal-Mart in L.A.
Witnesses say, the lady, who felt that the grip on her 50% off Xbox was being threatened pepper-sprayed about 20 people to ensure that she got the deal she was looking for and then proceeded to the check-out stand to make her purchase.
Grandpa Body Slammed By Police
Story number two, gets a little bit crazier. A grandfather and grandson, after picking up some game purchases are surrounded by a group of kids grabbing at games.
A fight breaks out and the grandfather, wanting to get his grandson out of harm’s way, tucks a game into his waistband for a minute to lift his grandson and remove him from the crowd when he is body slammed and knocked to the floor by police, shattering his face.
His grandson, left unprotected was then trampled by the crowd as police proceeded to try to handcuff the grandfather.
Deals or Disaster?
Adding to the tales of mayhem is an attempted robbery and shooting outside another southern California Wal-Mart, a passed out 61-year old man who was ignored and walked over by shoppers in a Target (he later passed away), and a “pepper spray puff” by police men trying to control a crowd in North Carolina.
This leads us to the question. Have Americans gone too far? Is that deal really worth someone’s life? Black Friday has turned dark indeed.