this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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According to police, Charles Smith, 27, entered the Walmart at 1955 S. Stapley Dr. on Dec. 19 intending to film pranks for social media platforms.

Instead, police said Smith grabbed a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer from a shelf without paying for it and then sprayed the pesticide on various vegetables, fruit and rotisserie chickens that were available for purchase.

Smith recorded his face, the pesticide can and the act of him spraying its contents. He later posted the recording online.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 134 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's not a prank. That could have killed people if nobody noticed it.

I hope they lock his dumb ass up for a long time.

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 17 points 2 hours ago

From the last wave of pranks when people licked ice creams and put it back I have learned that messing with food is a federal crime in the US and is taken quite seriously.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 86 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

Now, this could qualify as terrorism.

Not a single murder of a psychopathic indirect mass murderer CEO.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 32 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Doubt many CEOs shop at Walmart, otherwise it would totally be terrorism charges.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

you'd be surprised. A fairly large number of them are quite miserly, even in their personal lives.

[–] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

What do you believe his political motive was in spraying the produce?

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 hours ago

Whatever you think it is to fit your personal narrative /s

[–] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

What was the political motive between Luigi YAHOOO-ing the ceo?

I would recommend you reading his manifesto as long as you can, its not long but its being taken down from pretty much everwhere

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's been publicallly stated neither him nor his parents were customers of that specific insurance company, so the manifesto is likely fake.

[–] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The “We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare…” (https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/12/13/us/ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione-unitedhealthcare) is a little far away from a definitive statement, isn’t it? If they knew that not to be the case, why wouldn’t they say it so? Its really shouldn’t be hard to find out

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

So... do you think he was a customer, and they just haven't found out yet?

Like you said, it shouldn't be hard to find out. Therefore, he almost certainly wasn't a customer. They'd know.

[–] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

So… why aren’t they saying that?

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.ml 1 points 21 minutes ago

United already has a serious public image problem with their 30%-35% claim denial rate.

How much worse would it be if they said, "yeah, Luigi's back problems could have been easily fixed by surgery, but we decided to deny that claim and put him on painkillers for the rest of his life." They'd be admitting that one of their many fark-ups got their CEO killed. And that's not going to help their case if this ever goes to trial.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

That's just how cops talk. Police are trained to speak as vaguely as possible in order to not give the defense any ammunition. If they say "he was not a customer" then the defense can use that in the trial, and why would they want to help the defense?

Now answer my question. Do you think he was a customer, and they just haven’t found out yet?

[–] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

How on the bloody earth would assassinating his character help his defense? Maybe if they were lying, that could help I guess?

He is either ought to be, or he is a set up! It is very suspicious that after a week of headless panicking they found the suspect with the murder weapon and an apparently false paper explaining that he did it

[–] HelloHotel@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

They are not giving a definitive answer and merly giving their (less legally binding) professional opinion. Its like they dont want to know or publish an absolute.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah that's how cops talk. They don't want to put a professional statement out there if it helps the defense.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

I mean, I get your point......but not every story has to be compared to other stories. In this case Luigi. I also see other people bring up politics during stories that have nothing to do with politics.

And I wonder why people do that. Why talk about an unrelated topic when there's already an interesting topic?

I guess it's not as bad as reddit, where they would instead just post a random unrelated quote from the office, but still....

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

It's quite simply what's on people's minds right now. It was a major event, it outlines some of the systemic inequalities, and people are interested in the subject.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah.

It's also just fun to talk about because it probably makes US healthcare CEOs nervous.

After all they've done to the rest of us, it's nice to think of them feeling nervous. If they're not going to feel our grief, or appropriate remorse, or empathy, at least they can feel nervous.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

It's a current event being compared to another current event. One about a murder, and the other potentially attempted homicide, depending on the pesticide used. Seems to be pretty related to me, regardless of any politics.

Just because they call it a "prank", and the media uses the same shitty term, that doesn't make spraying pesticides on food for unsuspecting citizens to grab any less dangerous.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 6 hours ago

Corporate needs you to find the difference between this story and this story.

(They're the same story)

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 3 points 7 hours ago

It reminds me of the dupes on Facebook that comment "must have been a Kamala voter" on every video of someone doing something stupid.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 0 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

What political cause or ideology do you think this was done in support of?

[–] HelloHotel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Honestly, there doesnt have to be a political motivation. The default assumption is getting a reaction out of people.

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I didn't see what store it was but maybe he was trying to kill all of the flies in his local Whole Foods.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works -2 points 7 hours ago

Now, this could qualify as terrorism.

🤣

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 18 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

He only got ~300 likes on his posts, too. Dude's picking up a felony charge for 300 likes.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 hours ago

Good, let him rot in irrelevance, and prison.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 43 points 8 hours ago
[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 6 points 7 hours ago

I don't know what community I thought I was in, but I thought this was gonna be some joke story about Jar Jar Binks running a police force. Those cops need to fix the spacing for "Mesa"

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It's remarkable that it needs to be said but... Don't record yourself doing crimes and post it on YouTube.

[–] viking@infosec.pub 6 points 6 hours ago

It's just a prank, bro!