This Can Happen? Robbed While Inside a Walmart Store

My 82-year-old mom has a talent for hyperbole. Like many people her age, she is prone to dismiss life today as out of hand. She is fond of saying, "You're not safe anywhere these days."

I want to argue with her, but she might not be wrong with all the mass shootings and the craziness of life today.

In the news is a story of a woman who was robbed while shopping at a Walmart store in Indiana. The Facebook post from the Monroe County Sheriff's Department tells an unbelievable story.

According to the post, a 25-year-old victim was shopping in the middle of the afternoon at a suburban Walmart last Tuesday. Suddenly, a stranger, later identified by police as Tarea Hutchins, approached her and asked for money.

Photo: Monroe County, Indiana Sheriff's Department

The victim refused, then the suspect displayed a knife, walked her to the ATM near the front of the store, and forced her to withdraw money, according to police.

The surveillance video from inside the store confirmed the victim's story, according to police, and the suspect was quickly located and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon.

This might not even be the craziest story about a crime inside Walmart. At a Crockett, Texas, Walmart, a woman is accused of trying to buy another woman's baby boy at the self-checkout. The suspect, identified by police as Rebecca Lanette Taylor, 50, is facing charges of attempting to buy a child.

She offered the mother a half million dollars.

Photo: Houston County Sheriff's Department

San Angelo's Walmarts are no stranger to craziness. Back in 2022, a man shot up the jewelry display case at the Northside Walmart. Andrew Reyna was recently sentenced to a year in jail for that incident.

Back in 2018, a man drove his pickup through a San Angelo Walmart. That incident happened at the Walmart Supercenter on Sherwood Way. I always said those curbside pickup signs at some stores are vague.

All these incidents would lead you to believe that Walmart should consider adding more security inside their stores. Unfortunately, all the extra security in most stores is to protect the store from being robbed, not the customers.

Given that their last big initiative was "self-checkouts," Mom says she can't wait to see what they come up with for "self-security."