{"id":404961,"date":"2026-07-20T04:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404961\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T04:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:33:22","slug":"walmart-in-california-forced-to-extreme-lengths-due-to-shoplifting-locked-up-beef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404961\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart in California forced to extreme lengths due to shoplifting: \u2018Locked up beef\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Walmart reportedly has a startling answer for shoppers at a California store<\/a> who want to know: \u201cWhere\u2019s the beef?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s locked up in anti-theft wire bags. <\/p>\n

Online influencer Tony Bartleson \u2014 aka The MeadDad \u2014 posted a video clip on social media that shows a packaged \u201ccowboy ribeye steak\u201d and a three-pound tube of lean ground beef inside flexible wire bags sealed with what appear to be anti-theft devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere it is,\u201d Bartleson said while holding up the steak. \u201cWelcome to California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other, apparently less-expensive meats<\/a> without the wire bags around them were visible on other grab-and-go refrigerated shelves.<\/p>\n

\"TonyTony \u2018The MeatDad\u2019 Bartleson displays a 3-pound tube of ground beef locked in an anti-theft wire bag (Meatdad\/Facebook)<\/p>\n

Bartleson \u2014 whose website describes him as a \u201cJourneyman butcher turned stay-at-home dad\u201d\u2014 didn\u2019t say where the store was located, and a Walmart spokesperson told The Independent on Sunday that it couldn\u2019t comment without that information.<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s reported attempt to deter meat thieves follows a recent surge in beef prices that pushed up the cost <\/a>to consumers by 14.8 percent since last year, with seemingly no end in sight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also comes as the Golden State has been struggling with a plague of rampant shoplifting and \u201csmash-and-grab\u201d thefts since the COVID-19 pandemic, leading lawmakers to pass a landmark package<\/a> of anti-crime measures that went into effect last year.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The U.S. Sun<\/a>, which reported on the video Friday, Bartelson said, \u201cSeeing basic food items locked behind cages is sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that we can get to a point where measures like this aren\u2019t necessary anymore \u2014 where people don\u2019t have to steal just to eat, stores don\u2019t have to lock up food, and everyone has reliable access to the necessities they need,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"BartelsonBartelson says, \u2018Seeing basic food items locked behind cages is sad\u2019 (Meatdad\/Facebook)<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s reported safeguarding of its meat came just days after CBS News<\/a> reported that California\u2019s Bay Area Grocery Outlet chain had installed facial recognition technology at some of its stores to combat theft.<\/p>\n

Signs posted on the front doors warn shoppers that their faces will be scanned by software, with employees alerted if anyone on a list of suspected shoplifters enters the stores, CBS News said.<\/p>\n

Recent FBI statistics show shoplifting in the state is now at a record high that\u2019s almost 50 percent greater than before the pandemic, according to CBS News.<\/p>\n

Last week, a shoplifting suspect was killed and two San Francisco cops trying to detain him were injured when they were all hit by a vehicle while scuffling outside a Trader Joe\u2019s supermarket.<\/p>\n

Major chains, including Home Depot and Lowe\u2019s, have also started using automated license plate readers outside some stores to crack down on thieves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-404961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}