'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims
Report: Woman Has Filed 15 Previous Claims, 8 At Wal-Mart Stores
POSTED: 5:25 p.m. EST December 4, 2003
UPDATED: 6:50 p.m. EST December 9, 2003
ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A woman reported "trampled" last Friday by Wal-Mart shoppers desperate for $29.87 DVD players has a long history of claiming injuries from Wal-Marts and other businesses where she worked or shopped.
Patricia Vanlester, 41, was knocked unconscious and, her sister said, "trampled by a herd of elephants" by a stampede of shoppers reaching for DVD players that went on sale at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, according to Orange City police and the sister, Linda Ellzey.
The story was picked up by the Associated Press and carried in newspapers and other media as far away as Australia and China, an example -- some commentators have opined -- of American excess during the holiday shopping season.
An investigation by WKMG-Local 6 reveals Vanlester has filed 15 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.
Asked whether Vanlester's frequent injury claims might cast doubt on the veracity of her latest allegation, her attorney, David L. Sweat, of Port Orange, said, "No comment." He did stress, though, that Vanlester "has not filed a claim nor have we decided to file one" related to last week's incident.
Wal-Mart is reviewing store videotapes "as we look into the claim," spokeswoman Karen Burk said last week from the massive retailer's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. "We will investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have the other 10 claims that this customer and her sister have brought against our stores in the past." Wal-Mart later reduced the figure to nine prior claims.
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