Toothless man arrested for eating raw meat at Walmart

This gentleman was arrested for eating raw meat off the shelf in a central Pennsylvania Walmart this week. Scott T. Shover, 53, was apparently tearing open packages of raw beef. Well, the police called it raw beef. I'm sure Shover would call it steak tartare. Absurdly, his prior record makes this a felony offense. From Cumberlink.com:

Shover was arrested at Taser point without any further issues, according to police.

He was taken to Cumberland County Prison on retail theft charges, police said. Shover's record shows that he has four previous retail theft convictions. Since he is a repeat offender, this most recent theft becomes a felony offense, police said.

"Carlisle man charged with eating raw beef off of Walmart shelf"

• [Tom Hale]

  I’m guessing he’s homeless. If so, spending a little time in prison will probably be nice compared to living on the streets. Homeless or mentally ill -probably both since one usually leads to the other.

  • [hassenpfeffer]

    Tom, this gent probably spent several years of his life in one of PA’s state psychiatric hospitals, which were “phased out” two governors ago. Higher quality of life, right? :-/

    • [Tom Hale]

      I started to mention something similar. Here in Memphis there was a government funded psychiatric hospital that was shut down 10-15 years ago. The patients were released to their families if they would take them or just put out on the street.

      • [Guest]

        Ever wonder what they did with the money?

  • [Guest]

    I’m guessing you are not your brothers keeper. If you are, you’re doing it wrong.

• [frbrog]

  If he just gums it and puts it back, he’s not denying someone else the chance to use it. Sounds like file sharing to me.

  • [Carolyn Horn]

    you are sick.

• [Michael Ritchie]

  He was framed. How can a toothless man eat raw meat???

• [Peter Cattermoul]

  I guess it must have been minced (ground) beef, not a sirloin! Poor guy, clearly must have been very hungry ;(

  • [Lobster]

    It WAS at a Walmart…

• [Lobster]

  Man should really stick to gum.

• [Classes]

  Another american in jail for stealing food. See a trend?

• [Ellie Guapo]

  Considering this meat was from Walmart, the real crime is the kind of hormone-pumped shit that poor desperate guy is consuming…

  • [shivabeach]

    just make sure that you don’t buy anything that says Tyson

  • [Simon Johnny]

    Is Walmart really that bad in America? In the UK, our Walmart owned ‘ASDA’ supermarkets actually lead the way in quality and non-pumped shit. Or maybe in the UK we just don’t know what decent food actually is… at least from a supermarket anyway..

    • [Lobster]

      Walmart is considered the store of the unwashed masses, the dregs, the plebians, the rednecks, and the bottom of the social ladder in general.

      That said, we all secretly shop there because Walmart has great prices. But we don’t enjoy it!

• [Jennifer Kanis]

  This is straight up sad and ridiculous. Our prison system sucks. To even think of the notion that prison is a fucking hotel for this man and will be “nice” is insane. This man doesn’t belong in prison. He needs nurturing and education in basic social skills. He also needs his basic needs met. I understand we don’t live in a utopia- human services has no money or funding. I get it. I’m just blown away by the thought of educated persons thinking that “prison will be nice”.  

  http://www.vice.com/vice-news/norwegian-prisons

  • [Guest]

    going for a reaction v. actual sociopath?  It is indeed hard to tell over the internet.

  • [glaborous_immolate]

    I agree, but I wonder if he’s really educable at this point.

  • [Jonathan Peterson]

    Tom Hale said ”nice compared to living on the streets”.  Depending on the streets, he’s probably right.

  • [Bottle Imp]

    Sure, our prison system is fucked, but for the average homeless man or woman, we’re probably talking county jail for 30-60 days. And it has started getting colder in many parts of the U.S. 

    I worked for a short period of time for a county DA’s office. When the colder months came around, the homeless would start trying to commit minor crimes to get into jail and out of the cold. How do I know that’s why they did it? Because with budget cuts there weren’t enough beds in the jails, so most of them started getting community service. A few of them start demanding to be put in jail instead of doing 16 hours of community service and you start thinking about it. There just aren’t enough beds at the homeless shelters in the U.S. Jail becomes a means of survival. I think in this context, it might not be “nice” as in generally a good thing, so much as better than the alternative, the alternative being freezing to death.

    • [Guest]

      most. probably. just.

    • [Charles Neal]

      he was kicked out of the local shelter for showing up a number of times drunk

• [Ryan Griffin]

  What he needs is dentures…having just gotten them myself, I understand his frustration. The only other option would be a de-fanged vampire in a blood thirst craze, but he seems a tad happy for that.

• [Ryan Griffin]

  Have we determined if said meat being gummed was from a male bull or a female co…er…bovine?

  • [Simon Johnny]

    milk comes female cows, beef come males. lamb from baby sheep less then a year old, those poor fluffy animals can’t even walk properly before they have thier legs cut off and dipped in mint. yum.

    • [Sarah Shevett]

      Milk comes from all female mammals, beef comes from cows of both sexes. Welcome to earth!

      • [Garnett Schuyler]

        Actually, the vast majority of meat available at supermarkets comes from neutered bulls, otherwise known as steers.  So, yeah, he’s kinda right.

    • [E T]

      “can’t even walk properly” obviously you’ve never seen a newborn lamb.

    • [Lobster]

      To be fair, they could probably walk fine if they were let out of their little tiny cages.

• [skysky]

  I was going to comment that it should be “central Pennsylvania” and not “Central, Pennsylvania,” but honestly, outside of Pittsburgh and Philly every town might as well be “Central, Pennsylvania”.

  There is actually a small place in PA called “Central,” but that’s not where this incident took place.

• [Dwayne Anderson]

  This is one of those guys we as a society have to support support, like it or not. I’d rather pay my share by means of a miniscule increase in prices at the supermarket due to lost profits, rather than the thousands of dollars it’s going to cost taxpayers to incarcerate a convicted ‘felon’.

• [joeposts]

  Poor guy will never get help, just longer and longer (and more expensive) prison sentences. Good use of tax dollars – ineffective and irresponsible. It might be more useful and less wasteful to give him money to burn for warmth.

• [Brent Kirkham]

  Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ‘em
  that’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
  Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ‘em to death
  and get it over with and just dump ‘em on the boulevard
  Lou Reed – Dirty Boulevard   New York 1989

• [Rickety Rack]

  I know this is neither here nor there, but he is a very handsome man in that photo. Dentures would certainly help fulfill the obligatory social mores, but he has a strikingly attractive visage.

  I hope he gets the help he needs, which I doubt is prison.

• [cdh1971]

  In Jail/Prison he will get three hots and a cot.

  And dentures. Also he’s old enough to probably not be fckued with too much.

• [lecti]

  Why am I not surprised that this news is from rural PA?

  It must be the water. No, seriously.

• [Nicky G]

  Here in Baltimore, some locals actually eat raw ground beef sandwiches.  I am not making this up, and yes I realize that it’s sick.

  • [Lobster]

    Seems like this would be self-correcting.

• [Chas Ochocinco]

  How is it absurd that a crime escalates to a felony after you repeat it several times?

• [Charles Neal]

  knowing the guy personally i’d say he was drunk when they caught him. yes he is homeless. spends what money he gets on booze.he has back teeth btw

• [Steve Nordquist]

  Fresh, local, organic…this…bra-aa-ins. He’s just trying to eat the spectrum of foods. David, it’s always nice to have a seasonal reminder of who not to let bite. A safe Sukkot, everyone.