RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A Walmart is no bar. Police in South Dakota charge Perry Arpan popped open a beer in a Walmart and downed it. Rapid City police say Arpan tried to put the empty beer can back in the case. Store security stopped Arpan as he was leaving the Walmart. He's now charged with shoplifting. A police spokeswoman tells the Rapid City Journal that Arpan takes "beer theft to a whole new level."
Oh sure, you can eat as many grapes as you want, but you shotgun one little beer and you're accused of shoplifting...dude was just making sure it wasn't skunked, a valid concern given that Walmart isn't exactly known as a purveyor of fine beers. I'm sure if everyone just relaxed a second they would have seen he had every intention of buying the other 11 once he knew that first one was fine. We need to formally iron out what you can and can't eat while food shopping once and for all so that blatant miscarriages of justice like this are no longer present in our society.
