Good story out about the owner of a mini-mart being arrested, along with a bunch of accomplices for scamming the food stamp debit cards:
"Pat Lu, 48, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and fraud after police raided his Quincy, Mass. mini-mart and said he was personally skimming $30,000 per month from the federal government’s food-stamp debit card system. Bail was set at $100,000.
According to a report from NECN-TV, Lu was the ringleader of a complex scheme involving at least 53 suspects engaged in welfare fraud that has netted $700,000 in the past year and a half.
Police said customers would come into Lu’s store with debit cards they had received as part of the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Lu would swipe the card, ring up a phony sale for the value of the card, give the customer 50 cents on the dollar in cash, and pocket the rest."
http://news.yahoo.com/massachusetts-...223625057.html
I've always thought it was just ridiculous that these places were allowed to participate in the food stamp program to begin with. Food stamps, or their modern equivalent should be limited to full service grocers only. It would be nice, with all the technology to be able to exclude stuff like candy, pop, steel wool, etc. The ways people exploit the system are never ending.
Maybe every county could have one warehouse that is open twice a month for food stamps, like real socialists.