Germantown Wal-mart Incident

January 15, 2009 teenagers employing a hand held chemical weapon known as pepper spray carelessly attacked The Wal-Mart Super Store in Germantown Wisconsin. The fact that they did this not once, not twice, … but admittedly three or four times in a crowded building not equipped with windows shows the criminal disregard for the safety of others. Both of these youths are just shy of the adult age of eighteen. They have and should have used the common sense of not even considering this activity.

As a result of them deploying this device in the confines of this very active retail hub, they caused a expense that they couldn’t possibly comprehend.

The average ambulance rides now days are about $400.00 to $500.00. They generated between forty and fifty of these. The average emergency room visit varies around $600.00; … again multiplied by forty or fifty. Now consider the expense of dispatching emergency resources from all over the tri-county area, plus the Wisconsin State Patrol, F.B.I., A.T.F., State Crime Lab, and the Department Of Homeland Security. All of these agencies were involved in the emergency response to the Wal-Mart. That is a lot of vehicle fuel, man-hours, legwork investigating, supplies and materials used and much more.

Additionally, Wal-Mart lost twice, when it came to some of the merchandise in the store. Reports say that things that could no longer be trusted such as produce, deli and other merchandise had to be thrown away.

Okay, that’s loss number one. Now the expense of replacing every food item they threw away. That’s expense number two.

The flow of lost money doesn’t stop there. Now factor in the closure of this very busy and massive 24-hour store for more than a day, which caused the loss of sales on big-ticket items as well as small purchases. Everything from a pack of bubble gum all the way up to big screen televisions, … none of this could be sold during the shut down. This is a catastrophic financial loss in sales.

Look at what happened during the shut down while they couldn’t make money. They were spending money, … big money. The cost and expense of a clean up like the store has never seen before, because during the clean up period, it was still uncertain what they were cleaning up after. Again, extensive man-hours, supplies and materials were wasted.

There is more! Lost wages and hours of employment not just for Wal-Mart employees, but customers too. Consider Wal-Mart employees who lost hours and wages during the shut down. Consider customers who were supposed to go to work the day of the incident, but couldn’t because they were rushed to the hospital unexpectedly because a couple of idiots were playing with a chemical weapon inside a family orientated department store. The financial snowball rolls on and on. Personally I don’t see it ending any time soon.

Lawsuits? Sure! I would really be surprised if there weren’t any. These boys and their families run the risk of losing plenty. Their bank accounts, family vehicles, real estate and more could be affected. This could absolutely destroy their lives indefinitely. They’d be very lucky if it didn’t.

The liability involved in this stunt was extreme, but could have been a lot worse. Many people were affected by this activity; luckily none of them were infants or senior citizens with repertory problems or people with other deadly or allergic reactions to the chemical compound.

I keep using the description “chemical weapon”, … that’s because that is exactly what it is.

‘Weapon’, a device or object manufactured and marketed for the purpose of assaulting another living being, be it man or beast. (This is just one definition of many for the word weapon)

Pepper spray is a product that fits that definition to the ‘T’. There is no reason why these two children couldn’t have known this at their age. Further more, why did the parents leave this item accessible to juveniles? The parents need to get their heads examined. I’m against civilian ownership of such items for just this reason. Look at what this incident caused.

Chemical weapons are something I’ve always frowned on, even if it is an officer using it. My concerns are with the communicability of the chemical. Depending on where the chemical is made and what product it actually is, be it pepper spray, mace or any other chemical weapon, … communicability comes to mind. Say an officer sprays the face of a suspect; … the first reaction for the suspect is to grab his or her face with their hands. Now you have a suspect with a defense chemical on their hands as well as their face. If a higher incident evolves and a struggle takes place, the suspect may rub their hands in the eyes of the officer immobilizing the officer for a split second, but long enough to have his gun taken from his uniform which can be a fatal mistake.

There is no place in our society for civilian use of chemical weapons such as the one used in the Germantown Wal-Mart. I strongly feel they should be outlawed. Especially at current times!

What bothers me more about this is the fact that the punishment was decided right around the time something else in southeast Wisconsin was happening with students.

An eighteen-year-old male was arrested in New Berlin Wisconsin for activities involving Internet crimes. His activities involved other people. This man in New Berlin didn’t generate a army of emergency vehicles responding to his crime scene. He didn’t flood more than one emergency room with incoming patients. He didn’t cause a financial disaster like the boys at Wal-Mart did; but yet he’s facing a sentence of up to three hundred years in prison for more than one felony charge in his activities.

As for the boys who turned the Germantown Wal-Mart into an incident, … I feel it’s in order to have the current punishment recanted and renounced. Bring back the original felony charges. These boys need to be put away. As I said earlier, … they knew exactly what they were doing. Enough so, that they admittedly did it not once, not twice, but multiple times.

Further more …during this lengthy Wal-Mart shut down and investigation, these boys and their families were watching this horrific drama unfold on all the television stations.

Do you think for one minute, that they would have the decency and brains to pick up the phone and say, “the stuff at Wal-Mart was pepper spray, and I did it”? No, of coarse not! They sat back watching emergency resources be used right up to the very end. Hoping to get away with what they did, …running from the law, to say the very least.

They never turned themselves in at all; they waited for law enforcement to pick them up while they were going on with life as usual.

Someone might ask why I'm sensitive to this incident. My answer is, "someone I know was in the automotve department when this happened, and I know a Walmart employee too".

Reporter Joseph Toth

Washington Micro Bank BBS