[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/18\/caught-on-camera-a-shop-commits-food-stamps-fraud#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/18\/caught-on-camera-a-shop-commits-food-stamps-fraud","headline":"Caught on Camera: A Shop Commits Food Stamps Fraud","name":"Caught on Camera: A Shop Commits Food Stamps Fraud","description":"It\u2019s also one store in the country that regularly engages in food stamps fraud, and has had numerous complaints against it in since 2010.","datePublished":"2018-07-06","dateModified":"2018-07-29","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin#Person","name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"FoodStamps.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":100,"height":100},"url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/18\/caught-on-camera-a-shop-commits-food-stamps-fraud","about":["News"],"wordCount":675,"keywords":["18"],"articleBody":"Laws are in place for a reason: they set up a system of norms in which people can live by one uniform standard. Breaking the law can get you into pretty serious trouble, ranging from something as minor as a warning or ticket to something as severe as decades of prison time. That said,\u00a0many of us break laws on a daily basis, whether it\u2019s speeding on the freeway, gambling in your home, connecting to an unsecured wifi network, or underage drinking. These aren\u2019t always the worst laws to break, but it\u2019s breaking them nonetheless. When it comes to the food stamps program, though, their laws are of a different standard:\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0put in place to keep the system financially in check and to prevent people from engaging in the black market. But as you\u2019ll soon see, that just doesn\u2019t matter to a small handful of people.Lucky Food StoreOn East Silver Star Road in Ocoee, Florida, there\u2019s a shop called Lucky Food Store. You\u2019d drive past it if you\u2019re in the area, because it\u2019s on a major road and nestled between Stark Lake and Lake Olympia. It\u2019s also one of the millions of stores in America that accepts food stamps, making it even more attractive for the people in the area because it gives them easy access to food without having to drive all the way to a major retailer.It\u2019s also one store in the country that regularly engages in food stamps fraud, and has had numerous complaints against it in since 2010. Because of that,\u00a0Orlando\u2019s Channel 9\u00a0decided to go undercover and see for themselves exactly what was going on. They sent Vanessa Welch in with a hidden camera and, well, read on to find out what she learned.Cash for CardWelch, with her hidden camera on her, went into the store right after another man entered it, and she taped him using his EBT card in exchange for cash. She watched as he spoke a few words to the clerk, punched in his PIN, and was given $20 in cash. Welch spoke to him outside, and the man showed her his receipt, which the clerk debited his card for $36.93. \u201cIt was easy,\u201d he said, also mentioning that he\u2019ll return once his cash runs out to do it again.With this information in hand, Welch went back into the store to speak to the clerk. She told him she had just taped him handing out cash in exchange for food stamps, but the clerk denied it. He also denied knowledge of anyone else in the store doing it, saying, \u201cNot that I know of.\u201d Never mind the fact that Welch actually told him she\u2019d caught him on videotape, as that didn\u2019t seem to faze the store clerk one bit.Sliding By because of \u201cWorkload Issues\u201dAs mentioned before, Lucky Food Store had committed food stamps fraud more than once. So why hasn\u2019t it been pulled from the program? According to an audit performed by the Division of Public Assistance Fraud, \u201cmore than half the tips coming in were rejected because of \u2018workload issues\u2019\u201d, with Jack Heacock, the director of the DPAF, saying, \u201cWe are continuing to improve the effectiveness of our investigations.\u201dBut when it comes to those very investigations, the audit also showed that there are only seven investigators handling tips in Orlando (where Channel 9 went). Heacock also alluded to this, mentioning that there\u2019s a backlog of 2,000 cases that are \u201cpending assignment\u201d, but that the \u201cnumber of cases they\u2019ve sent to prosecutors has doubled.\u201dUntil that backlog gets cleared, though, shops like Lucky Food Store will continue to commit food stamps fraud because they know the likelihood of getting caught is slim to none."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ID","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/\/ID\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"18","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/\/ID\/\/18\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Caught on Camera: A Shop Commits Food Stamps Fraud","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/18\/caught-on-camera-a-shop-commits-food-stamps-fraud#breadcrumbitem"}]}]