Customers shopping for games at the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch, San Fernando Valley got a little more than they bargained for last night when they were blasted with pepper spray amidst scenes of commercial chaos.
Here's the thing, though; the spraying wasn't done by police or security. It was the result of one crazy woman, looking to get an edge over other shoppers.
By all accounts the store was a mess, as the video game section was "torn down", and several of the 100 people "waiting in line to snag Xbox gaming consoles and Wii video games got into a shoving match".
It was during this chaos that the woman blasted other shoppers with pepper spray.
"People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray," one shopper told the LA Times. "I guess what triggered it was people started pulling the plastic off the pallets and then shoving and bombarding the display of games. It started with people pushing and screaming because they were getting shoved onto the boxes."
Customers hit by pepper spray at Wal-Mart describe scene of chaos [LA Times]
You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at plunkett@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.