ORANGE CITY - A woman who was reported trampled by Wal-Mart shoppers during a holiday sale has made numerous injury claims against stores since 1987, including nine against the world's largest retailer.
Patricia VanLester, a 41-year-old former Wal-Mart employee, has received thousands of dollars in injury and workers' compensation settlements from Wal-Mart, records show.
Paramedics reported finding VanLester unconscious on top of a DVD player Nov. 28 amid a frenzy of shoppers during an early bird holiday sale. She was airlifted to a hospital, where she spent two days.
Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman said he had no details about settlements of past claims, including one filed by VanLester's sister.
"We're going to investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have investigated the other 10 claims that this woman and her sister have brought against us in the past," he said.
VanLester's sister, Linda Ellzey, said the woman suffered a seizure and other injuries caused by shoppers who trampled her at the Wal-Mart Supercenter's 6 a.m. sale featuring $27.87 DVD players.
"I was first in line right by the DVDs, and my sister was leaning up against the pallet," Ellzey said afterward. "Those people were vultures. They were like a herd of elephants."
VanLester did not get the DVD player, but the store offered to put it on layaway for her.
VanLester's mother, Barbara Rastellini, said her daughter was bruised and sore but did not suffer any broken bones. Rastellini said VanLester did not want to be interviewed.
A case manager for David Sweat, VanLester's attorney, said Friday that VanLester hasn't filed a formal injury claim against Wal-Mart from last week's incident.
Mark O'Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC Ambulance, which treated VanLester at the store and airlifted her to a hospital, said VanLester was admitted to the hospital's trauma center. Orange City police Cmdr. Peter Thomas said Friday his department found no criminal acts in the incident and has closed its investigation.
VanLester's history of claims dates back to at least 1987, when she won an undisclosed cash settlement of a claim that she slipped and fell at a Volusia County bowling alley. She also collected more than $1,800 in workers' compensation claims for slip-and-fall incidents at a Publix supermarket and another Wal-Mart store in 1995 and 1996, respectively.
In another claim, she said she slipped on a puddle of hand lotion in 1991 while shopping at an Orange City Walgreens pharmacy, causing "permanent injury, disability, disfigurement (and) mental anguish." The case was thrown out after a 10-minute court hearing.
- Information from the Daytona Beach News-Journal was used in this report.
