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Walmart responds after video shows carts of food thrown out after tornado

By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

CELINA, Ohio — Walmart responded Monday after a man accused the chain of wasting cartloads of food in a video that went viral on Facebook.

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Gary Joe Ahrns posted a video on Facebook last week showing dozens of shopping carts filled with deli meat, milk, butter, cakes and other foods sitting outside a Walmart in Celina, Ohio.

“They don’t let employees have it,” Ahrns says in the video. “They won’t sell it to anybody else. They’re throwing it away.”

(Warning: The below video contains language that may be offensive to some viewers. Discretion is advised.)

“People starving to death in the world… and they’re going to throw it all away,” Ahrns says in the video. “Good old U.S. of A, we’ve got so much stuff we can throw it away. … This is wrong, and you all know that this is wrong. This is terrible.”

The video was taken on Nov. 6, one day after a tornado knocked out power to the area for hours.

Walmart officials said in a post on the store’s Facebook page that the food wasn’t safe to eat, despite the fact that none of the foods had reached their expiration dates.

“The food being disposed of was unsafe for consumption after the store lost power for 14 hours,” officials said. “Per internal and health department policies, we followed proper procedures by disposing of the food.”

Eight people were injured when a pair of EF-2 tornadoes swept through Celina on Nov. 5, prompting the city's mayor to declare a state of emergency, according to WHIO.

The storm caused heavy damage to buildings in the area.

"I've seen a lot of hard hit areas with storms, even as far as having relatives down in the hurricanes," Mayor Jeffrey Hazel told WHIO. "I can say this is pretty tremendous damage in this area."

Celina is about 120 miles north of Cincinnati.

Cox Media Group

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