A TikTok video from @alexi.marie, which had more than 219,000 likes and 3,600 comments at the time of publication, describes an incident at Walmart in which a U.S. Marshal watched her check out after a cashier initially forgot to scan a car seat.
Alexi linked the encounter to an incident about a year earlier, when she and her boyfriend were stopped by loss prevention after eating popcorn chicken without paying for it during a $650 shopping trip.
She recalled that during the earlier incident, loss prevention approached her and her boyfriend as they left the store. She recalled them saying, “That popcorn chicken, we seen that,” and said staff photographed her and her boyfriend and warned them that a repeat incident would result in an arrest.
The TikToker returned to the store recently to buy a car seat for her daughter along with seven or eight other items, including laundry detergent. She was on the phone with a friend during checkout and did not notice that the cashier had rung up everything except the car seat.
@alexi.marie Walmart DO NOT play? #relatable #walmart #dontstealmyfood #fyp
♬ original sound - Alexi
"I'm ringing everything, she's ringing everything up. I'm on the phone with my friend, I'm not paying attention," Alexi said. She said the cashier caught the mistake after Alexi had already inserted her card, which led her to ask that the item be scanned properly out of concern about repercussions from the earlier chicken incident.
She then noticed a man standing behind her in line with a carton of milk and tin foil. He set his items down and showed her a badge as the car seat issue was being resolved. "I'm a Marshal," he told her.
Alexi questioned why a U.S. Marshal would be involved in an incident over popcorn chicken. "Y'all didn't send lost prevention? Y'all didn't send the police? Y'all sent the Marshal over some popcorn chicken?" she asked.
She said the experience left her shaken and unwilling to risk another issue with the store. "I am scared straight when I tell you I was crying over the popcorn chicken," she said.
The TikToker also sensed store employees following her during subsequent visits to Walmart and has started proactively asking for help finding items as a response. She argued that the attention she received was disproportionate to the amount of merchandise she was accused of taking, noting that other shoppers could also be carrying unpaid merchandise.
She acknowledged that she was responsible for the original incident but said the response felt disproportionate. "I did the crime, and I didn't have to do the time. But now y'all have scared me straight," she said.
Commenters shared mixed reactions and stories about unpaid food at Walmart
Reactions to the video included people sharing their own experiences with unpaid food while shopping. One commenter described handling the situation differently, they wrote, "Girl I always eat popcorn chicken while shopping but I just scan the empty container."
Another commenter asked for clarification about the food item itself, they said, "Walmart has popcorn chicken cooked and U can just grab it? I've never seen that" [sic].
A separate commenter described a similar experience involving a partner being stopped over food while other shoplifting went unaddressed. They wrote, "No bc me and my mom were in the store and got a 5 finger discount and my bf walked out before us eating some popcorn chicken and they stopped him for that chicken and didn't trip off us" [sic].
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the identity of the man described as a U.S. Marshal, the store’s internal loss-prevention practices or the specific Walmart location involved. The details above are based on @alexi.marie’s account shared on TikTok.
