INDIANAPOLIS — The food license of a Walmart in Lawrence remains suspended after health officials found evidence of rodent activity in multiple areas of the store.
An inspection of the store at 10735 Pendleton Pike was conducted after a customer complaint made to the Marion County Public Health Department. Investigators later found evidence of significant rodent activity - rodent droppings and torn packaging - across the Walmart.
Those areas included the grocery section, pet food and receiving area. A violation was issued, and MCPHD suspended the store's food license
"Everything's roped off, covered up. No access to fresh foods or frozen foods," said shopper Antonio Blackwell.
"I'm very shocked. It's like an epidemic. First the fish place, Jordan's," said a shopper named Kay.
Friday afternoon, the health department announced the store's food license remained suspended after a reinspection.
"Inspectors with Food and Consumer Safety at the Marion County Public Health Department determined that more progress is needed to reinstate the store’s food license. MCPHD will continue to monitor progress toward achieving compliance of violations, and a recheck by the health department is expected to happen next week," MCPHD wrote in a statement to 13News.
13News checked inspection reports for the store on Friday and found this was the third complaint in the past five months of mice in the store, which resulted in critical violations.
The news made some customers rethink their purchases.
"My wife actually got some tomatoes and she ended up putting them back because of what's going on. It's kind of disappointing because a lot of people depend on this store. You would think they would work a little harder to keep it up," said Blackwell.
Because of the limited selection of groceries, some shoppers like Blackwell were forced to make additional stops at other stores to finish their shopping.
"Hopefully we can move around and try to find something to get these kids fed for spring break," Blackwell said.
The store received a $500 fine because of the violations. The health department plans to do a recheck on Friday. Its food license will not be reinstated until evidence of the rodents are gone.
Whether the store gets its food license back or not, some shoppers said this was the last straw.
"Food is going up and we have to pay for rodents, too?" said Kay.
Walmart released the following statement to 13News:
“The cleanliness and safety of our stores is a top priority. We have conducted a thorough third-party inspection to address the matter. We want to assure our customers that we will continue to prioritize their health in our stores and are working to immediately resolve this.”