Wal-Mart stays open for search

Mitchell store doesn't close despite pre-holiday threat
By MELANIE BRANDERT
Argus Leader
Dec. 29, 2006

Last Saturday afternoon, Eva Voorhees heard the clatter of feet on the roof of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Mitchell where she works in the photo department - but it wasn't the pitter-patter of reindeer.

It was the police looking for a bomb. Up front, police officers, the SWAT team and others were busy searching the store next to customers who were browsing for gifts. The police looked in jewelry counters, wrapping paper rolls, freezers, the back room where trucks unload and closets at Tire Lube Express.

During the nearly two-hour search, Wal-Mart officials opted not to evacuate the busy discount store even though police recommended they do so. Wal-Mart officials said the call was a hoax and not a threat.

The incident has family members of Wal-Mart employees criticizing store officials for failing to take the threat seriously.

Voorhees has worked at the Mitchell discount chain for about four years. Her daughter, Charlotte Goode, 36, said Voorhees called her Sunday, crying and upset as she relayed the story.

"It's right before Christmas. They were swamped with people," she said. "To me, they endangered the community, customers and associates. They put making a buck ahead of public safety."

On Saturday, the Mitchell store - like many retailers nationwide - was filled with customers making last-minute holiday purchases. The store had at least $400,000 in sales at stake.

When Elida Antaya of Plankinton shopped at the store about 9 a.m., she said it was full of customers.

The store received a call at 2:10 p.m. from a male who said a bomb was there. Lyndon Overweg, Mitchell public safety chief, said the caller did not go into specific details.

The SWAT team was dispatched, along with many officers to help clear out the store.

Overweg said police recommended the store be evacuated to allow SWAT team and other officers to search the building. But Wal-Mart opted not to, he said.

"We look at it from a public safety standpoint," Overweg said. "How they approach their issue, you'll have to talk to them."

Wal-Mart District Manager Steve Hanselman in Sioux Falls said Wednesday night that Wal-Mart would never put its customers or employees' safety at risk. He said the decision to keep the store open was not based on Saturday's six-figure sales number.

"What is most important to our associates is their safety," he said. "Myself, Wal-Mart and city officials came to the decision that it was a hoax."

Hanselman deferred further comment to corporate media relations.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone said Tuesday the threat was nonspecific.

"The safety and security of customers is always a top priority," she said. "We work closely with law enforcement to determine if there's a threat to customers and associates. We make evacuation decisions based on discussions with law enforcement."

Bluestone could not say how Wal-Mart officials made the decision not to evacuate.

"It was a decision made by the management team and local authorities," she said.

Despite Wal-Mart's decision, Overweg said police had a mission to search the store.

Mitchell police does not have a bomb-detecting dog, so officers scoured the store's interior and exterior, Overweg said. Off-duty and animal control officers were used in the search that took 11/4 to two hours.

"Had we found any device, everything would have been cleared out," he said. "But no items or anything were found."

Antaya, whose two daughters work there and are mothers of four children, did not hear of the incident until Saturday night at a Mitchell restaurant. She was stunned to hear the store wasn't cleared out.

"That struck me wrong right away," she said. "I said, 'Is the mighty buck better than people?' How can they put money over people's lives? You just don't do that."

She began to think about the prospect of those four kids, ages 5 to 11, being without their mothers.

When Antaya's daughter, Auranette, 28, returned home to Plankinton, she gave her daughter a big hug. She said one of her daughters asked a supervisor what was going on, and they were told, "Oh, we can't say."

"She was pretty shaken up herself," Antaya said of Auranette.

Wal-Mart employees did not receive formal news of the threat until a Sunday morning meeting. Voorhees said manager Ron Warner told workers a bomb threat occurred. When asked, he said Hanselman and the loss prevention division at company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., chose not to evacuate.

Attempts to reach Warner were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Voorhees called Overweg and Hanselman and told Gov. Mike Rounds' office that public safety was not preserved in the incident. According to Voorhees, Hanselman said it was a prank and said, "Do you know what it would do to Wal-Mart's business?"

When asked what policy Wal-Mart had in determining when to evacuate the store in the case of a threat, Bluestone repeated that the company works closely with law enforcement to determine if a threat exists to customers.

She would not give a reply on whether the company would have evacuated workers and customers if the threat had been a direct one but said it works with law enforcement.

Voorhees said that Wal-Mart employees have codes on the back of their name plates. Blue is for a bomb threat.

"As far as sending panic through the store, they could have said a code blue and employees would know," she said. "I have never been trained what to do with a bomb threat."