To Live and Die In A ... Walmart Parking Lot

Surprising news.  According to the news, finding dead bodies in Walmart parking lots is not that unusual.  God knows there are enough parking lots.  Walmart has 4,177 US stores and employs 1.4 million people.  It is said that 90 percent of Americans live within 15 miles of a Walmart.  Going further, I read that if Walmart were a country, it would rank #26 in worldwide standings.

That's a hella lot of Walmarts.  In a community-minded  contribution, Walmart management allows overnight parking in their lots, if this policy is agreeable to local law enforcement.   Said parking lots are host to the homeless, truckers, immigrants - legal or otherwise presumably, druggies, the suicidal and the very ill.  What causes these unfortunates to be discovered (as often as not rigor mortis has come and gone) is the smell.  Even so, one woman was discovered dead after three months in her vehicle.  The people at that location may not be the most observant there and most certainly are olfactory challenged.

Despite their parking lot hospitality, the stores do not hire and use night security personnel.  And in the daylight hours, it must be assumed that incoming shoppers are so anxious to get to the bargains and the outbounds are so eager to get their spoils home, that no one really notices the reek.

If I were the County Coroner and had to deal with bits and pieces of decomposing bodies because all deaths unattended by a doctor/medical staff are suspect and thus autopsied,  I would ask Walmart to augment rolling night shift cops in tagging vehicles by date observed - and subsequent dates.  After three nights when the vehicle has clearly not been touched, it's time to bust a window.    Fresh is better than not, if you follow my thinking.

Living in a vehicle in a parking lot is one thing, but reports of a 14 year old boy living in a Walmart attic are inaccurate.  Snopes derailed it.

Keep an eye and a nose working after you park at Walmart.  Happy and productive shopping. Oh, wasn't that old VW van just there last week?  Hmmm... "Thank you for welcoming me to Walmart; now an I see the manager?"