Customer disputes Wal-Mart stampede ("victim" has 16 claims against Walmart/Walgreens etc)

News Journal online ^ | 06 December 2003 | HENRY FREDERICK

[KneelBeforeZod]

DAYTONA BEACH -- A Wal-Mart customer who was right up front where a woman claimed she was injured in a stampede for Christmas-sale DVDs the morning after Thanksgiving said there was no such rush.

"There was no stampede; there was no bell ringing like they said," said Gale Barr of Deltona, who said she was at the Wal-Mart store in Orange City with her 20-year-old daughter as they took five DVDs for themselves and helped pass more to others in the crowd behind them.

"We were passing them back to the other customers so they could make room for us to leave," Barr recalled Friday, adding that Wal-Mart employees kept the situation orderly despite the large crowd.

Barr's recollection of what happened at 6 a.m. a week ago Friday when plastic was cut away from pallets by a Wal-Mart store clerk that held a stack of $29.87 DVDs is a far cry from the claim made by Patty VanLester's sister, Linda Ellzey. Ellzey had called the other customers "vultures" and said they acted like a "herd of elephants."

The eyewitness account is the latest twist in an incident that has gained worldwide attention, from Chinese television networks to a George Will column, and prompted only an investigation by Wal-Mart so far. No lawsuits have been filed in circuit court in Volusia County.

Paramedics reported finding VanLester unconscious on top of a DVD player Nov. 28, the morning after Thanksgiving when customers jammed the store for the early-bird discount holiday sale. She was airlifted to Halifax Medical Center where she spent two days before her release Monday.

Mark O'Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC ambulance, which treated VanLester at the store, wouldn't comment Friday on whether it was possible for VanLester to have faked her injuries. He noted that she was admitted to the hospital's trauma center.

"The hospital admitted this woman for two days," he said. "What does that tell you?"

By mid-week, media reports surfaced showing VanLester, a former Wal-Mart employee, had filed eight workers' compensation injury claims against Wal-Mart and at least eight claims against other businesses she frequented -- either as a worker or customer, according to public records and Wal-Mart officials. And her sister Ellzey, who claimed she was first in line with her injured sister, also had filed an injury complaint against Wal-Mart.

A 1993 deposition VanLester gave in a lawsuit against an Orange City Walgreen pharmacy showed her first claim was in 1978.

That's when the then-17-year-old VanLester received $117 in workers' compensation after claiming she suffered an injured knee from a falling object at a DeLand manufacturing plant. Five years later, she received another $294 from the same plant where she said she slipped and hurt her wrist.

The suit against Walgreen's, in which she claimed she slipped on a puddle of hand lotion while shopping there in 1991, was thrown out after a 10-minute hearing.

Karen Burk, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman at the nation's largest retail chain, said despite the controversy swirling about how or why VanLester was injured, the incident is being investigated and her past claims have no bearing on this one.

Burk said she couldn't comment specifically on what may have happened, but added, "We think the facts will speak for themselves. We will investigate this claim as we have the other nine claims she and her sister have brought against us."

Burk said compensation given to VanLester for past claims was "in the thousands." She would not elaborate.

The sister, Ellzey, claimed a bell had sounded for the sale and customers rushed to the front where she and VanLester were standing first in line. But Barr disputed Ellzey's claim about a stampede, a bell and that the sister was even up front.

"That woman was first in line," Barr said of VanLester. "She did lean against the pallet, which I thought was strange because her back was towards it. There was no stampede. Nobody could move. It was a fire hazard but there was no stampede."

Because she was busy pulling down DVDs herself, Barr said she did not see VanLester fall to the floor, but did see Wal-Mart employees tend to her immediately.

"It was very orderly and professional the way they handled it," Barr said. "I don't think Wal-Mart was negligent. They got right to her. If I had heard this story about this woman, I would feel sorry for her, but I can't because I was there. And now there's all these claims. Who knows?"

That's the question large retail outlets and even mom-and-pop merchants deal with every day, said Daniel Butler, vice president of the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C.

"Even if there's a history of claims that seem suspicious

[KneelBeforeZod]

oops. cut it off


"Even if there's a history of claims that seem suspicious, that doesn't mean the next time, it's not legitimate," Butler said.

Neither VanLester nor her sister returned calls from their mother's Orange City home Friday for comment. But the mother, Barbara Rastellini, 68, dismissed allegations of fraud against her injured daughter, saying, "All of this is nothing but bull."

henry.frederick@news-jrnl.com

[friendly]

This is a professional career criminal, as is the rest of her sociopath family.

She would never have been as successful as she is without a group of very sophisticated fellow criminals: the trial lawyers would helped her fake the endless "injuries" for their 1/3 of the settlement loot.

[Quilla]

Too lazy to work, too nervous to steal, what do you do, sue.

Years ago, I worked with a fellow who confided that his wife and mother sued folks for a living. They would drive around until they saw an expensive car behind them. Slam on breaks and waa-laa a year's income.

[metalboy]

All I know, is if they find this woman has faked this, they should throw the freggin` book at her, just totally make her life a living hell. I`m sick of this crap. I had jury duty 2 months ago (NYC) and every EVERY single case I was assigned to was for a lawsuit, as well as the other people around me who I talked to. It`s just one big lawyer scam going on that`s really out of hand, and this BS gotta stop bigtime. "Ms. so and so sprained her hand on a train" "Mr. so and so was hurt at work" This guy had a fly in his soup, this one had tripped over his shoelaces, that one got wet in the rain, this one McDonalds made him fat, this one didn`t know that molecular acid could burn her, that one didn`t know if you put a loaded shotgun to your head and you pull the trigger that you could blow your brains out...

[KneelBeforeZod]

I wonder if they
would let the jury hear that she has all these other claims when it inevitably ends up on court.

[TomB]

"The hospital admitted this woman for two days," he said. "What does that tell you?"

She knows exactly what vague symptoms to give the doctor to be kept there.

If you do it enough, you can become very good at it.

[martin_fierro]

Patricia VanLester

[KneelBeforeZod]

and her attorney

(RIP, Phil Hartman 1948-1998)

[AmericaUnited]

Walmart has something like 500 camera's in every store. It's impossible to do anything, anywhere without a camera picking it up. So... this FAKED INCIDENT must be on camera. Case dismissed.

[battlegearboat]

I wouldn't be interested in paying $29.87 for a DVD.

Now a $29.87 DVD player is a different story.

Anyway, this sorry POS woman must lead a miserable life.

[sirchtruth]

She knows exactly what vague symptoms to give the doctor to be kept there.

To me that is the most intriguing part of this story...being in the hospital for TWO days indicates a problem.

Can you give me an example of "Vague Symptoms" to keep her in a ward for two days?

[kittymyrib]

These professional lawsuit thieves know how to work the system and cost us, the consumers, billions a year. If juries would stop handing out cash to these crooks, the lawyers would starve. And while we are at it, let's investigate all the breathless news accounts of this incident: that she was trampled when the doors opened, that some shoppers ran their carts over her, that her sister was vainly trying to pull her out from under the thundering herd. All this was BS. News media who reported this lie ought to be forced to print the real story on the front pages of their papers just as they ran the original story that made Americans look bad all over the world.

[LanPB01]

I've got a buddy that's a prosecutor in a small town in which Wal-Mart is the biggest employer. Recently, he had a case come up where two women claimed an ex-husband of one of them stalked and harrassed them all around the store, then beat the hell out of them in the parking lot.

It turned out, these women were unaware of all the security cameras in the lot. When the tapes were played in the judge's chamber, it showed the women literally chasing the guy all over the store and screaming at him in the lot while he just frantically tried to leave. They then tried to block his truck as he attempted to pull out. One of the women suddenly took a dive, acting like the truck hit her (it was probably at least ten feet away). The other woman, seeing what her friend did, attempted the same. The judge was not amused.

[muawiyah]

Looks like the lady here might well have been done wrong, but over in the hospital where there was no one to tend to her over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Odds are they put her on a gurney (where she's gonna' end up anyway if she keeps up these false claims), and just parked her in the hallway.

We can see a doctor hungover with turkey breath selecting her for surgery. (The imagery gets worse the more we think about this.)

Then, there's the sister?! Hmmmm? What was she doing this whole time. For all we know this lady may have a lump on her head for a very good reason.

I recommend the cops interrogate the sibling.

[muawiyah]

This was about "players", not "dvd"s. Last year they were $12.

[Kozak]

Can you give me an example of "Vague Symptoms" to keep her in a ward for two days?

Headache
Diplopia
Paresthesia
Paresis/paralysis
Dyspnea
Abdominal pain
Confusion
etc etc etc


As an ER physician I can tell you one of the hardest things to prove is when someone is NOT ILL. I am forced to admit patients all the time with what I strongly suspect are conversion reactions or frank malingering.

[BlessedBeGod]

"The hospital admitted this woman for two days," he said. "What does that tell you?"

That the hospital didn't want a lawsuit?

[TomB]

Can you give me an example of "Vague Symptoms" to keep her in a ward for two days?

"Gee doc, everytime I sit up I get dizzy and nauseous."

"My feet are tingling".

"The vision is blurry in my right eye."

Note, I'm not a professional patient, or an ER physician, so those are just guesses. But if you have some experience, you know the things that make doctors nervous. And feeding off the litigous nature of medicine nowadays, it isn't hard.

[pepsionice]

Its time to start putting these folks into jail for 30 days at a time. I bet there are at least 10,000 of these fakers in the US...and it is stupid for us to continue to let them into courtrooms throughout the US.