There's No Place Like ... Walmart

In its public relations blitzes, retail giant Walmart promises to help its customers “live better.”

But moving into – even temporarily – one of its stores probably wasn’t what corporate executives had in mind.

That’s only a guess, albeit a safe one, after officials declined a request by The Flint Journal/MLive for comment on the arrest of a 45-year-old woman who had been squatting at a Walmart store in Grand Blanc Township for almost two days.

Township police got a call from store officials on the morning of Jan. 8 after they discovered the woman sleeping in a store restroom. She reportedly had been kicked out of her home by a relative.

“During the day, she’d just walk around and meander near the store,” Detective Matt Harburn of the Grand Blanc Township Police Department told the newspaper. “At night, apparently she’d go into the bathroom and sleep.”

Concerned that she had only a light jacket to protect her against temperatures that were in the teens Thursday, police took the woman into custody and took her to the police department, where she called family members who picked her up.

She was issued a ticket for disorderly conduct.