Posted on 12/26/2003 7:43:37 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Matthew Baures loves Christmas, but he learned the hard way that there is very little holiday cheer while waiting in line at a Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve.
The 22-year-old Berwyn man was pummeled with a baseball bat and beaten by as many as four people after a dispute over a place in line at a Forest Park Wal-Mart.
"I couldn't believe someone would actually do this on Christmas Eve,'' Baures said Thursday as he nursed a bruised eye and aching tailbone and ribs.
Forest Park police were looking for two to four male suspects in the incident. There had been no arrests by Thursday afternoon, but police "have some good leads,'' Sgt. Mike Keating said.
Baures, an unemployed Web designer, was last-minute shopping with his girlfriend and another friend at the Wal-Mart at 1300 Des Plaines Ave. about 6 p.m. Wednesday. They picked up some toy race cars, Batman figures and other gifts for his girlfriend's children, along with some household goods.
The checkout lines were "the longest I've ever seen at a store,'' Baures said. His girlfriend went to the car while he waited with their friend. There were so many people it was confusing exactly where the ends of the lines were, he said.
They got into one line, and a girl began yelling at them they had cut in front of her. Baures and his friend argued with her, but let the girl go in front of them. The girl proceeded to allow what appeared to be her mother and friends to cut in front as well, but neither Baures nor his friend objected.
At one point the girl began staring at his friend "like she was going to kill her,'' Baures recalled, and they asked the girl's mother to ask the girl to stop. That led to an even bigger argument.
At that point, Baures says, he loudly proclaimed, "It's Christmas Eve. I just want to go home.''
But as Baures and his friend left the store after about a half-hour in the checkout line, they passed the group of women, who were talking on cell phones. Then he realized they were being followed, and the group now included boys and men, including one who was carrying a baseball bat.
"This young kid comes up to me with a baseball bat, saying, 'What did you say to my sister?' '' Baures recalled. "He was holding the bat like he was going to hit me, so I grabbed the bat.''
Another man then punched him in the face, and he fell down. Several men began hitting, punching and kicking him in his face, ribs and back. His friend then jumped on top of him and said, "Please stop hitting.''
Then the men pummeled her.
"All I could think as I lay there on the ground was, 'I cannot believe this is happening on Christmas Eve.' '' Baures said. "It was over nothing. They went straight to violence.''
Although a crowd formed, no one came to their aid, Baures said. But someone did provide police with the license plate number of a light-colored Cadillac in which some of the men fled. Others left in a different car.
Baures said Wal-Mart security did little to either calm the situation in the store or break up the fight in the parking lot. No one answered the store's phone on Thursday.
Forest Park police, who arrived after the fight, said they didn't know how security responded, but said tempers flared in the stress of the holiday rush.
"I'm glad I got my shopping done early,'' Keating said.
Forest Park Mayor Anthony Calderone said, "It's sad that anyone would resort to that type of conduct, especially with the holiday, but any day of the year.''
Baures was treated by Forest Park paramedics and declined to go to the hospital because he has no health insurance. But he said he was in so much pain he slept through most of Christmas Day and decided not to visit his family.
"I feel bad it happened but at least I'm not dead,'' he said. "It didn't dampen my Christmas spirit. The only thing broken on me is my heart.''
No, that is not true. Where did you get that idea?
Great post:>).
Um, they were closed on Thursday.
Should read...
They have 50 checkout lines, but can't won't hire enough Americans to check out customers.
No matter this guy's "experience" I don't blame Wal-Mart. I shop local (when they're savvy enough to carry good stuff at a decent price) but when sometimes I have to hit a major chain store I usually choose Target. Wal-Mart, Lowes, Target, whatever, it's more a reflection of society that shopping has become an ordeal. For the Free Market system to work competition must exist and I know many local businesses that have grown savvy and become even more successful by finding a non-walmart niche to grow fat in. Even so, I often feel that I'm "out amongst the hairy unwashed" when I go to the big stores but then I consider where I live and understand who I'm dealing with. Go to Wal-Mart and you can see a cross section of your local culture - they're not bussing the freaks in. These are the same knuckleheads that bug me other places too, just in smaller amounts.
I have the same gripe, although it extends to a lot of the megamarts like K-mart, Toys R' Us et.al. I gladly pay a little bit more to avoid the logistics nightmare that is the American Megamart. I avoided megamarts and malls like the plague this X-mas season and seemed to find everything I needed with relatively little hassle.
TORONTO - A 21-year-old man who was shot at the Eaton Centre on Christmas Eve is in stable condition. He was shot in the leg and the groin during an altercation near a fountain, as the shopping centre was preparing to close just before 6 p.m. Others in the mall got the gun, but the shooter escaped. No one has been charged.
Then you would have been to late. He had prior danger signals which he didn't heed.
From the article: Then he realized they were being followed,
The guy and his girlfriend may have a point.
Wal-Mart has been on notice that their customers are idiots, and should have followed up on an obvious dispute in the lines. Security should have monitored the situation, to the point where the first set of fighters and the second set of fighters are out the door, in their cars, and off the Wal-Mart property.
Well, what do you suppose he said that caused the others to beat him with a ball bat?
FWIW, there are lots of mean people out there. My best friend died at the age of 18 because somebody told another fellow we knew that my friend had said something about his mother. The guy put a butcher knife in my friend's chest and he died in a parking lot. And my friend had never said anything about the guy's mother. The killer had a history of that sort of thing. I had seen him pick fights with totally innocent people at school for the hell of it.
There are some people who just look to cause trouble. It's hard to understand why some people are like that but they do definitely exist.
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