Pop goes the taxpayers Bridge Card

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The customer's thirst was questionable.

As she walked down the pop aisle at the Wayland Hardings Supermarket Sunday night, her motive apparently wasn't to Do the Dew or search for the Pepsi People.

She was looking for quick cash.

"It is a little irritating. It's very irritating. In this instance, it was very irritating," store manager Steve Holland told 24 Hour News 8.

About 9 p.m. Sunday, a customer walked down the pop aisle at the Wayland Hardings, and picked up 42 pops in both cans and bottles.

She bought them on her Bridge Card, the federally-funded, state-administered debit card that allows people on public assistance to, among other things, purchase food with the swipe of the card.

The customer walked out the door, pulled the pop out of the bag, and fed the bottle and cans, still full of pop, into the bottle-and-can return machines.

As the glass and aluminum is crushed in the machines, they explode, gumming up the inside of the machine, spreading a sticky mess across the floor.

"It was a big mess last night," Holland said. "We had to pull the bins out and let them drain off and we flushed them with water, and put them back in this morning."

The yet to be identified customer walked away with $4.20.

Holland said he called the state. They told him the customer didn't violate any of the rules regarding Bridge Card purchases.

"I've been on the program a couple of different times. I just can't believe somebody would do that," said Hardings customer Brenda Wilkerson as she placed her empty return in the now-repaired machines.

But some in the state legislature can believe it.

A number of lawmakers, like Rep. Joe Haveman of Holland, have called for changes to the Bridge Card program, including restrictions on eligibility.

There have been calls to exclude certain foods, like soda pop, from the program. But so far the federal government, which makes up the rules, hasn't changed them.

Tales like the Hardings incident upset card recipients as much as anyone.

"It definitely defeats the purpose," Wilkerson said. "There are so many families that are out there, that need this stuff right now and somebody like that that's ruining the program for people that are really in need of it."