330 Alhambra Circle

Coral Gables, FL 33134

633 S. Andrews Avenue Suite 400
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

(305) 446-5700

(954) 323-4400

Speak with an Attorney

Pregnant Woman Runs Over Suspected Purse Thief in Walmart Parking Lot

A pregnant woman was caught on video running down on alleged purse snatcher with her SUV in a Walmart parking lot in North Carolina. Christine Braswell, 26, told local media that she found the man rummaging through her SUV  before he took off running with her purse. The suspect, Robert Raines, who was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, was charged with felony breaking and entering, larceny and misdemeanor damage to property.

Watch Video of Ashville North Carolina Incident: https://youtu.be/v4umzNJIqMk  

Haggard Law Attorney Christopher Marlowe says this incident is another reminder that Walmart is yet to truly commit to addressing its well-reported security issues. “Walmart parking lots remain hot spots for violence and mayhem.  This most recent event caught on camera in Asheville, North Carolina demonstrates how quickly a “nonviolent” crime can become a matter of life or death” says Marlowe, who was quoted in a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation earlier this year on Walmart’s consistent security issues (click to read).

He adds, “When auto burglary, theft and other ‘petty’ crimes are allowed to flourish in the vast concrete expanses that Walmart uses everywhere as its parking lots, more of the same will follow.  Either meaningful security is there to protect customers, or dangerous encounters like this will remain the status quo.”

For her part, Braswell was charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon.

Click to read article by Christopher Marlowe and Published in the Daily Business Review on WalMart Security Concerns as Published

 

Bloomberg Article Highlights Rampant Security Problems at Walmart Stores

walmanrt marlowe2weaa_small_logo_square

Haggard Law Attorney Christopher Marlowe was interviewed and quoted in a just-released Bloomberg Businessweek article highlighting how Walmart’s cost-cutting measures may be directly related to an increased rate of crime at its stores nationwide.  From rape to shoplifting, to kidnapping and murder, the article lays out how police are trying to corral the rampant crime in many of the nation’s number one retailer’s locations. A recent example in the last few weeks, police in Buffalo found a meth lab operating underground of a local Walmart store.

Marlowe fought Walmart for several years in a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and repeatedly raped. Marlowe discussed how Walmart made every legal maneuver to avoid releasing its in-house crime statistics.

From the article, Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy By Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos:

Walmart’s lawyers typically argue that the company couldn’t have foreseen the crime in question and that it took reasonable steps to keep customers safe. It tries at every opportunity to keep its crime database secret. Even in litigation, when it must produce company records under court seal, its lawyers have wrangled for months or even years to limit access to its records, arguing the information is proprietary. “Nothing compares to the way Walmart litigates cases,” says attorney Christopher Marlowe. He fought Walmart for several years over a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., and repeatedly raped. Marlowe said in a court filing that he learned only in 2013 of the database, which documented “precisely the sort of incidents” he sought for more than two years. Walmart’s lawyer, he said, “led everyone to believe that crime data retrieval was a great mystery—a query of inconceivable proportions.” Walmart denied liability in the case. The company eventually settled for an undisclosed sum.   

To read the entire Bloomberg  Businessweek Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-walmart-crime/

Since 2007, The Haggard Law Firm  has handled more than 150 negligent security cases and delivered more than $350 Million in verdicts and settlements to clients in those cases.

bbw_walmart_crime_cover  walmanrt marlowe1

 

Photos Courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek