Feds Send Out Black Friday Safety Warnings
BOSTON (CBS) - You probably never thought of shopping as a dangerous sport, but federal officials are sending out some serious Black Friday safety warnings.
Last year in Buffalo, New York, a shopper was injured at a Target store the day after Thanksgiving. Two years ago, a shopper was killed after a trampling at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, New York. It has OSHA officials urging stores to take precautions across the country.
At Best Buy in Watertown, manager John Garrasi says the store will hand out tickets to people in line. "It kind of eliminates the whole free-for-all atmosphere that would happen if we were to just stack up those killer items and then just have a mass surge of customers running for the same thing," says Garrasi. Other stores are setting up barricades to control lines outside.
WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports
The FBI says shoppers can get trampled online as well. Agents warn fraud is always more prevalent during the holiday shopping season. They're telling people to avoid links to cyber-stores.
READ: Black Friday Shopping Guide
"I would go and physically type in the address of the site that you want to go to. By utilizing links included in emails or ones that come up in pop-up ads, may be fraud, sending you somewhere that may not be the real site," says Agent Kevin Swindon, who works in the FBI's Boston office. He's also warning shoppers to make sure all antiviral spyware is updated.
