A west suburban Chicago Walmart was polluted with pepper spray late Sunday, forcing an evacuation of the store.
Officers were called to a reported pepper spray incident at Forest Park’s Walmart Supercenter at 1300 Des Plaines Avenue around midnight, just before the store was closing, police said.
No customers were inside at the time, but workers were told to “leave the building immediately” as authorities responded to the incident.
One of the Walmart associates, Diamond Thomas, is several months pregnant. She told NBC 5 she on her scheduled overnight shift when she heard the startling alarm.
“I was doing my work and all of a sudden I heard on the intercom, ‘All the associates please come to the front,’” Thomas said.
Thomas was taken to an area hospitals as a precaution, according to authorities.
“If this was a deliberate prank, it’s dangerous and someone should be held accountable," Walmart spokesperson Erica Jones said. "We are working with police on their investigation and thank them for their quick response.”
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An investigation into the incident is ongoing.
