A Colorado mom said she found an unwelcome surprise in her grocery delivery from Walmart.
Tesia Britt was unpacking the groceries with her 3-year-old daughter at their home in Aurora when she found a used crack pipe next to a package of pineapple juice, she told local station KDVR-TV.
The 28-year-old mother of three discovered the illegal paraphernalia while unloading groceries with her daughter on April 5, 2022. She immediately complained to Walmart but was told that it wasn’t Walmart’s problem but a third-party service that places orders through the app.
After the discovery, the woman quickly called her husband.
“I said, ‘this is a crack pipe in the bag, and he looked and he’s like, ‘yeah, it really is, you’re not crazy,’” Britt told FOX31.” You shouldn’t have to worry about when you have groceries delivered that you can’t even let your kids help anymore, because you don’t know what you’re going to find in these bags.”
The groceries were delivered by a third-party service Walmart uses. The company has yet to identify the delivery service that was responsible. However, the company said the service has since been deactivated following an investigation.
“We strive to provide every customer with a positive delivery experience,” Walmart wrote in a statement said. “While uncommon, we take customer complaints like this very seriously. Upon learning of what happened, we immediately deactivated the third-party driver and encourage any customer who encounters anything unsatisfactory to reach out to customer care.”
In an interview with DailyMail, she said she spoke with a manager who promised her the driver would face a “disciplinary action” but did not specify what it would be.
“I have not received an apology from Walmart,” she declared. “I was literally offered a refund on my order and a gift card of unknown value that I never received!”
Now, Britt is worried that the Walmart location between Tower Road and I-70 in Aurora, Colorado is less than “sincere about making things right” with her order.
Until this terrifying incident, Britt had relied on Walmart for her groceries. Now, however, she will need to rethink whether or not she will be giving money to a retailer that allows delivery drivers to smoke crack while on the clock.
“I haven’t ordered from Walmart since the incident, and if I do have groceries delivered, it’s been Amazon Fresh grocery delivery,” she said.
Britt wants action, not silence.
As we can recall, the Biden administration announced that it would grant funding to pay for the distribution of safe smoking kits as part of efforts to reduce harm from substance use over the next three years.
In Colorado, as in the rest of the United States, substance abuse has risen in recent years alongside ripple effects from the pandemic.
CDC data estimated that drug overdose deaths last year were nearly 15 percent higher than in 2020, which saw deaths 30 percent higher than in 2019. Opioids are the most significant driver of overdose deaths, but fatalities from cocaine and methamphetamine also rose last year.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, KDVR-TV/Fox31