Walmart Forced to Foot the Bill for Food Stamp Glitch Shopping Spree

A computer glitch in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Food Stamp system wreaked havoc across 17 states over the weekend.

In Louisiana, food stamp recipients had their spending limits temporarily lifted at two Walmart stores and customers went on a free-for-all grocery shopping spree, cleaning out shelves.

Police were summoned to Walmarts in Mansfield, La., and in Springhill, La., for assistance with the masses of frenzied shoppers, Yahoo! News reports.

"It was definitely worse than Black Friday. It was worse than anything we had ever seen in this town," Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd told reporters. "There was no food left on any of the shelves, and no meat left. The grocery part of Wal-Mart was totally decimated."

According to a report from Examiner.com, the two Walmart stores that allowed customers to buy groceries with no limit failed to follow the emergency protocols put in place by the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services for such an occasion. These procedures call for retailers to set a $50 limit on EBT card holders in emergency situations.

Many Walmart shoppers reportedly filled up multiple shopping carts with food while the EBT computer systems were down. One woman allegedly spent $700 on groceries, yet store employees continued ringing up customers.

"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards during the outage so that [customers] could get food for their families," said Walmart spokesperson Kayla Whaling.

According to Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services spokesperson Trey Williams, Walmart will be held responsible for footing the bill on any additional amount of money that was spent over customers' eligible benefit balances.

Walmart says it will cooperate and pay off the hefty bill it racked up from the weekend grocery binge. The company told ABC News that the incidents were "isolated" and company officials don't believe there will be any material impact to its U.S. business.