Man Who Fell Trying To Buy A Watermelon From Walmart Was Awarded $7.5 MILLION Dollars

Washington Post - Army veteran Henry Walker was trying to buy a watermelon at a Walmart in Alabama when his foot got stuck in a wooden pallet. When he turned, the 59-year-old fell, breaking his hip.

Walker sued Walmart over the 2015 incident, and an Alabama jury has ruled that he should be awarded $7.5 million.

“You don’t expect to go into a grocery store walking fine on your two feet and come out on a stretcher,” Walker’s attorney Shaun O’Hara told AL.com.

The incident unfolded June 25, 2015, when Walker went to a Walmart store in Phenix City, Ala., according to court documents.

Walker reached to pick a melon from a display, and his foot became lodged in the pallet under the watermelon container. He turned, unaware that the pallet was there, and fell and shattered his hip, court documents state.

Walmart had a responsibility to its customers to provide a safe environment and should have known the pallet could cause an injury, his lawyers argued. But the company said the display was not dangerous, according to a Wednesday court filing.

The jury deliberated for about two hours late Wednesday before ruling in favor of Walker, awarding him $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

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Some people have all the luck. I just can’t believe sometimes how lucky some people can be. What I wouldn’t give to fall in a Walmart and make a cool 7.5 million dollars as a result. Oh no, I have a little back pain here and there. Big deal. Oh no, I have to take some pain pills and go to physical therapy here and there? Oh well. You know what the great equalizer for all of that is? Money. And you know how much money? $7.5 million.

Every day it’s all I want. A UPS truck to hit me in a cross walk. Starbucks to slip up handing me my coffee and give me burns. A NASA satellite to fall out of the sky and smash my skull. I want that pay day, baby. I want that fuck you money. I’ll take a little bit of crippling pain and short term memory loss to buy a beach house in Aruba and live out my remaining years. I mean if Sonny Koufax got $200,000 for a cab running over his foot 2 years ago (the cab was huge), the sky’s the limit for the rest of us.