A Walmart store in Wisconsin witnessed some of the strangest behavior to ever happen in one of the stores – and that’s saying a lot. Walmart often attracts strange sights and sounds because it attracts people from all over. Everyone knows that when you step into a Walmart, you’re bound to see something interesting. But for shoppers in Wisconsin, they were privy to a display that shocked them to their core.
At the Eau Claire, Wisconsin Walmart location, police were called to save other shoppers from the chaos that broke out because of a mother-son duo. As it turned out, Lisa Smith and Benny Vann allegedly went crazy and started destroying things in the store. Smith, 46, supposedly ripped apart product displays and began executing karate moves on the police when they responded. Meanwhile, her 26-year-old son stripped naked and started exposing himself to the other Walmart shoppers. When the police tried to get him, he stole clothes from the display racks and tried to escape on a scooter.
While Smith and Vann were wreaking havoc on the Walmart store, they also brought their attack dog and unleashed it in the store. While the dynamic duo destroyed everything Walmart had put on display, their dog barked and bared its teeth at other customers. It also ran around terrorizing the shoppers and police officers.
When police approached Smith and tried to reason with her, she resisted arrest and started assaulting police officers with karate moves. When they collared her, they brought her into the back of the squad car where she continued to resist arrested. Smith even tried to shatter the window of the squad car, kicking it repeatedly so she could escape.
While Smith was being arrested, Vann ran around naked, exposing himself to the shoppers. As police officers caught up with him, he tried to run one of the police officers over with the scooter, threatening the officer with bodily harm. But Vann was easily stopped in his semi-dressed state.
Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and misdemeanor bail jumping. Vann was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, disorderly conduct and retail theft.
Neither Smith nor Vann was charged with attacking a police officer or threatening a police officer’s life despite their use of karate and an electric scooter.
While police officers arrested Vann and Smith, their dog continued to attack people, which in some states – not Wisconsin apparently – that could be considered assault with a deadly weapon, since they intentionally unleashed the dog in the store. The dog was detained when it was found holding a box of Jiffy cornbread mix in its jaws. The animal was relocated to the Humane Society, although many of the scared patrons are begging officers to euthanize it.
“The dog was not charged,” Eau Claire police wrote in a statement: “We issued him a warning for the theft.”
If the situation was different and Eau Clair took the assault more seriously, Smith and Vann could be facing more serious charges – especially since all the violence they displayed that day they lost their minds.
It was not confirmed or denied that methamphetamine use or abuse of another substance was involved.