Analysis: The management of Angeli's Country Market in Menominee, Michigan has confirmed the authenticity of a customer receipt showing that $141.78 worth of lobster, porterhouse steak, and Diet Mountain Dew were purchased by an individual using a Bridge Card (the electronic benefits card issued to food stamp recipients in Michigan) on February 8, 2011.
Since Michigan law defines "eligible food" for the government assistance program as "Any food or food product intended for human consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and foods prepared for immediate consumption," the purchase itself was not illegal. But because steak and lobster are generally regarded as luxury foods, the transaction has been condemned in some quarters as an instance of welfare abuse.
Indeed, it's such a stereotypical example of welfare abuse — "Everyone knows of someone (or knows someone who knows someone) who was in line behind a welfare person using food stamps, and observed him or her purchasing frozen dinners or steaks or lobster or some such," complained author Michael L. Murray in 1997 — that skeptics initially wondered if the Menominee incident actually took place.
Items were illegally purchased for resale
On the face of it, the case does seem too flagrant and over-the-top to be true — and now we know why. According to the Menominee County Sheriff's Department, local and state investigators have discovered that the reason the cardholder bought such large quantities of lobster, steak, and soda was not to "dine like a king," as some have characterized it, but to resell them for profit. And that is illegal.
The accused, one Louis Cuff, has been charged with welfare fraud and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/ss/Lobster-Steak-Food-Stamp-Receipt.htm