On a recent shopping trip to Walmart, shopper and TikToker Devin Mira Montes (@amazingestmommy) made a fascinating discovery. She says she caught Walmart selling an item she recently lost at the store.
“Look how trifling Walmart is,” she says at the start of the video.
“Remember I said I lost Ella’s blanket in here? Why did they pick it up, tag it, and put it in the clearance aisle?” she remarks.
As she says this, Montes shows viewers a small silver blanket sitting on a Walmart shelf before flipping it over to reveal a $7 clearance sticker on the tag.
In the video caption, she writes, “Now I have to steal my own stuff from y’all?? Be so [expletive] serious.”
“Walmart sells lost and found items,” the text overlay of her video reads.
Does Walmart really sell lost items? Why?
Her video quickly went viral, racking up 2.1 million views and thousands of comments. Many viewers shared similar experiences of their lost items being put up for sale at Walmart.
“Yesss, one time my sister left her wallet at Walmart (a wallet that wasn’t even sold there), and when we came back another day, it had a tag on it, hanging up, and still had all her cards in it,” one viewer shared.
“This happened to me with my kid’s baby doll, lmao. I just took it back,” another commented.
Others speculated about why Walmart might do this.
“Well, if they carry that product—or something similar—they may assume it’s just damaged. If it’s still usable, they’ll mark it down. If not, they’ll claim it out. It’s really not a far reach,” one person explained.
“The worker probably assumed the tag got ripped off and just retagged it. They have no way of knowing if it’s been bought or not,” another added.
A Walmart employee chimed in to offer more context: “I work at a Walmart. If the item scans in our system, we have no way of knowing if it’s been bought or if someone just ripped the tags off, so we have to make new ones.”
@amazingestmommy Now I have to steal my own shit from yall?? Be so fucking serious 😒
♬ original sound – amazingestmommy
Legal context: Who owns the lost property?
According to Law Stack Exchange, “Under common law principles, the finder of a misplaced object has a duty to turn it over to the owner of the premises, on the theory that the true owner is likely to return to that location to search for the misplaced item.”
However, “If the true owner does not return within a reasonable time (which varies depending on the circumstances), the property becomes the property of the owner of the premises.” That would give Walmart the right to sell lost merchandise.
One viewer even commented, “Schools should do this to make $$$$,” to which Montes responded in a follow-up video.
She said, “No, but this is actually a great idea. Our school, though, after a certain time without claiming lost items, sends out several notices. They usually just donate them to charity.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Devin Mira Montes and to Walmart via email.
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