Wal-Mart trip turns into pepper spray nightmare for some shoppers

Shoppers in a New York area Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) probably were not expecting to be inhaling pepper spray on their shopping visit, but that's just what happened this past weekend due to an errant decision by some employees at a Valley Stream location.

Some employees just couldn't figure out what was in an "unmarked" canister, so they decided to spray some of the contents of the canister into the air -- I suppose to sniff the contents. Generally, determining what's in an unmarked canister using olfactory prowess is not a preferred detection method. Well, unless you're a trained canine or something.

What the employees didn't know is that pepper spray particles began floating all over the store, aided by cooling fans that were turned on in some aisles.

In total, 16 customers fell ill due to inhaling pepper spray and half that total actually required a trip to the hospital as a result of inhaling the pepper spray particles. Note to Wal-Mart management: any unmarked canisters should be disposed of properly, not tested in-house. It's hard to think any canister the size of a pepper spray container would be unmarked, but there you have it.