Woman's Prank Causes Riot At Clothing Store

A woman who was being driven around in a rented limousine pulled up at a coat store and announced she had won the lottery and would pay for everyone's purchases that were in the store, police officials said, but the woman ended up causing a riot when customers realized it was all a hoax.

Linda Brown was arrested Tuesday after an hours long shopping spree that began when she hired a stretch Hummer limousine to drop her off at a Burlington Coat Factory store, police Sgt. Lt. Michael Deakins said. Brown walked to a cash register and loudly announced she had won the lottery and would pay for each person's merchandise up to five hundred dollars.

Apparently people who were in line were calling relatives who were not at the store and telling them to come down in a hurry.

People flooded the cash registers as cashiers began ringing up purchase after purchase, but Brown had not yet paid the bill, Deakins said. At least 500 people filled the aisles and another 1,000 were outside the store trying to get in.

"She was telling people she won $1.5 million, but it ends up she didn't win anything. She had no money to pay for anything."

By the time employees realized Linda Brown didn't have any money to pay she already had taken off in the limousine, police said.

That is when angry customers realized that they weren't getting free coats and began throwing merchandise on the floor and grabbing clothes without paying for them.

The angry customers started throwing merchandise all over the store and began looting, leaving the store looking as though a hurricane had passed through it, police officials said.

"Everybody was saying, 'I still want my free stuff,' and that started the riot," police said. "It looks like Hurricane Katrina crashed through the clothing store."

Police said they have no way of tracking down the customers who stole items and fled, but they are reviewing surveillance videos in hopes of catching at least some of them.

Finally the limousine driver realized he wasn't going to get paid the nine hundred dollars Linda Brown owed him for the day's rental, that's when he turned her in to the police.

Linda Brown, 44, was arrested on three outstanding warrants for aggravated menacing, misuse of a 911 system and causing false alarms. She was jailed late Wednesday, but no charges had been filed against her related to the coat store chaos pending a mental health evaluation.

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