Independent reporter Nick Shirley and a group of street reporters have exposed what they describe as open-air food stamp fraud operating on the streets of Seattle. Their reporting followed an abandoned EBT card through a simple scheme that allegedly converted taxpayer-funded benefits into cash.

Shirley worked with San Francisco-based street reporter Darren Stallcup, Seattle reporter Jonathan Choe, and other independent journalists. Together, they traced how EBT cards found around homeless encampments could become valuable currency for brokers and participating businesses.

Choe told Shirley that EBT cards frequently litter homeless encampments. According to Choe, people around the encampments receive so many cards that some are eventually thrown away, while some recipients use food stamp benefits to obtain drugs.

The reporters found EBT cards and tried to document the process from beginning to end. Shirley’s video presented how one abandoned card could allegedly be used in transactions involving cash, drugs, sex, and an astonishingly expensive can of Spam.

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The scheme begins when the government funds an EBT card. A broker then offers to purchase the card for cash, while a cooperating business allegedly adjusts the price of food to match the available balance.

In Shirley’s investigation, a woman acting as a street broker directed him and another reporter to a nearby Seattle seafood market. The purpose of the trip was to convert the value on the EBT card into cash through a purchase processed by the store.

Before the trip, the woman asked how much money remained on the card. Shirley told her it contained $120, and she offered the reporters $60 before instructing them to get into her car for the visit to the seafood market.

The encounter was hardly subtle. Shirley told the woman, “You've committed fraud.” She replied, “I know.”

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A longer version of the video showed the reporters speaking with an apparently homeless man named Devon. He directed them to a location in downtown Seattle where they could exchange the EBT card for cash.

Devon identified the location at minute 5:18 of the video. On the way there, the reporters encountered a Vietnamese woman who appeared to be working with other people involved in the transaction.

Another woman appeared to call a number printed on the back of an EBT card, possibly to determine its remaining balance. The woman who later acknowledged the fraud then asked the reporters about their card and arranged the trip to the seafood market.

At the market, the price of a can of Spam and an item of sushi was allegedly adjusted to consume the card’s entire $120 balance. “And magically, just like that, one can of spam and thing of sushi was $120,” Shirley declares.

Shirley did not complete the transaction. Instead, he pretended to enter a PIN into the payment machine, and the attempt failed, allowing him to document the process without actually using the card.

Here's how food stamp fraud works: - Gov funds EBT cards with $ - Fraudster offers to buy the card for cash - Local business partners with the fraudster to adjust food price to the EBT card's balance - Everyone gets paid with your tax dollars

END THE FRAUD. https://t.co/WE7145oqdI — Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) October 8, 2026

Shirley’s decision could be compared with an election integrity sting conducted by James O'Keefe during the Obama administration. O'Keefe was offered the ballot of sitting Attorney General Eric Holder but declined to take it, telling a precinct worker he would retrieve his identification.

The worker assured O'Keefe that identification was unnecessary, but he continued insisting he would return with it. As he left, he said he would be back, “Faster than you can say furious.”

Shirley later returned to the seafood market to ask questions about what had happened. By then, word had reportedly spread that he was in the area, and the people at the business would not engage with his questions in English.

The investigation offered a street-level look at a food stamp fraud method that operates openly. A card funded with tax dollars was offered for half its stated balance, taken to a business, and attached to a wildly inflated food purchase.

Shirley and the other reporters did not merely describe the arrangement from a distance. They followed the card, met the brokers, entered the market, documented the proposed $60 cash offer, and confronted a woman who openly acknowledged that the transaction was fraudulent.

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