Monday, October 12, 2009

Big Brother watching you at Walmart


Ocala is so fortunate. We have three Walmart stores! Heh, heh. That's no big deal, but look at the top of the entrance to this "main" Walmart located near the Paddock Mall.

Spy cameras are watching you!


Today, in Orlando, a Walmart store was robbed of about $200,000 by a man who waltzed in dressed as a Walmart employee and wearing a Walmart badge. He pushed a cart into a back office, opened a safe, stuffed a couple boxes full of cash, and walked out of the store not to be seen again.

I don't know if the robbed Walmart had cameras above its entrance.

I just thought of something! I'll bet the cameras you see here caught me taking photos of this entrance. Yikes!

38 comments:

Tash said...

your photo is not as big a violation as the woman walking out thru the ENTER side!!!
Really funny post.
No Walmart's in South Bay - the unions have managed to keep them out. Call me a snob but I much prefer Tar-zhay.
I keep thinking there is a fallacy in our economic health measures - I did learn in business school that wealth is goods and services but how many $10 tee-shirts do we need? Or for that matter, Jimmy Choo shoes (of which I have none and will never have any!) Sorry...I got sort of off track. CONCERNED

Lee Spangler said...

Actually I think it is a good. pix. I like all the lines in the sho. As far as the cameras are concerned, they are everywhere, Not even novel to flip em off!

Olivier said...

Big Brother est partout maintenant, de plus en plus de vidéos dans les villes ;(

Bergson said...

you 'll be suspected of preparing

Halcyon said...

You have to hand it to him, that was a smart idea! I wonder if he'll get away with it. You'll have to keep us posted on any updates.

VP said...

Funny story, hope those cameras were working...

Wolynski said...

Saw a documentary on Walmarts - never knew that their parking lots were some of the most dangerous places in America, full of crime. According to the film, those cameras are rarely monitored.
Personally, I boycott Walmarts, not because of the cheap, bad quality junk on offer, but because they don't pay a living wage and offer lousy benefits. Trader Joe's pays a living wage, why can't Walmarts?

magiceye said...

hope you were smiling!

Pat said...

For sure they did. A summer or two ago, there was a terrible incident of a girl who was kidnapped at a WalMart in Washington state. The story did not have a happy ending, but I believe, thanks to the cameras, that the guilty party was caught.

Small City Scenes said...

Boy oh boy--you'd better have your story straight about why you were taking pictures of their cameras. Where did you say the 200,000 was? LOL MB

Unseen Rajasthan said...

What a nice shot !! Simply great..Unseen Rajasthan

Paula said...

Now we can't go anywhere without spmebody seeing us through a surveilence camera!

Cezar and Léia said...

hehehe funny thought ...For sure the cameras got you taking this picture! :)
Be smart! LOL
Léia

brattcat said...

Yikes, indeed.

Lois said...

You better be on your best behavior when you go to that Walmart from now on Jacob! They probably think you were casing the joint.

B SQUARED said...

I'm torn between crime prevention and invasion of privacy. I avoid WalMart like the plague.

Bob Poris said...

I think the robber took them at their word about real savings at Wal Mart

Daryl said...

Maybe they are not just security cameras but traffic cameras? And w/o them how would CSI ever solve the crime?

Memphis MOJO said...

Did you say cheese?

Maybe the lady exiting through the entrance needs some of those Dead Sea rejuvination pills, ya?

jusdealem said...

You always catch people doing what they're not supposed to be doing! LOL I think that was a brilliant plan of robbery...not that I advocate robbery or anything...but I bet he laughed at those WalMart employees all the way home.

Mo said...

London has thousands of them. I believe we are the most spied on people in the world

cieldequimper said...

We'll buy you some oranges and bring them to you in the county jail.

EG CameraGirl said...

Well! That's amazing that someone could simply dress up like an employee and...WAIT! I bet it was an employee...or an ex-employee...or someone who knows an employee. That robber is gonna get caught for sure!

tapirgal said...

There's local discussion about how to prevent the damage that a Walmart would bring to our community, as it seems there is one about to move in. A lot of us are against it (including me). I overheard a conversation in Starbucks between two young women employees who were excited about the invasion of the big box stores here because they offered jobs (and shopping, no doubt). I am upset because (among other things), the stores are being planted where trees and meadows used to give range for a large elk herd and homes for raptors. I'm getting tired of everything being controversial, but what are you gonna do? There are things that should be controversial. (Big sigh.)

tapirgal said...

Memphis MOJO's comment: exiting through the entrance. This is excellent! :) Didn't even notice it.

stromsjo said...

Many cameras are not operative. Sometimes due to technical malfunctioning. Sometimes due to bureaucracy. We have road cameras which are only supposed to catch a preset number of individuals per year and it would be an awful lot of work to continue monitoring them once that target has been achieved, right?

Lowell said...

@ Per Stromsjo - I think you're probably right, although I have no facts to back that up.

What's happened in the US, is that the so-called Patriot Act (boy, was that misnamed!) provided beaucoup money for towns and cities to beef up their "anti-terrorist" operations.

These towns and cities took the money and bought cameras which they then situated in every available spot; big-brother like. Most of them are more likely to see Elvis rise from the dead than they are a terrorist!

Monitoring these cameras is likely to be a problem. At least we can hope.

Lowell said...

@ EG - I think you're right. It seems he had a key and code for the safe...

Lowell said...

@ Ciel - If it's all the same, I'd rather have you bake a cake with a saw in it...

Lowell said...

@ Jusdealem - The cameras showed the guy being stopped by the Walmart "greeter" as he exited the store...but he flashed his name tag and the greeter waved him on!

Rob said...

I hope you dressed appropriately for this on camera photo shoot. Who's photographing whom? ;)

Cherie said...

hahah!

Marie-Noyale said...

I love your photograph it reminds me of those old cuckoo clocks where the little people come out at the sound of the hour!!!

Kcalpesh said...

Interesting, so much like you hear in the movies!

- Pixellicious Photos

cieldequimper said...

Ah, sorry, no... I don't want to end up in the cell next to you...

Buenos Aires Photoblog said...

Those cameras serve well to lull people into a false sense of security. In fact, security cameras don't prevent crime they just record it for the purpose of evidence. These surveillance measures simply don't work as expected as we can see in the UK. Crime rates didn't decline nor did the crime-solving rate go up significantly. It's a dilemma with uncertain consequences for a society.

Lowell said...

@ Buenos Aires - I think you've hit upon some extremely important points. I agree with you. What worries me is the precedent these damn things set and how they could be used if in the wrong hands!

The US of A is not immune from the bad guys in our midst! Some of them become politicians...I could name a shrub, for example...

Druv said...

Walmart Manipulation in India

WalMart has taken its monstrosity to a whole new level by buying out the politicians and using our Tax money to Establish UID system to tap into the information of all the people of India.

This system would have given them access into the lives of all the people of India so they can feed off their lives to sustain themselves for a long time.

This monster has to be put down soon!

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." — Henri Cartier-Bresson