Early morning shopping Friday in Austin was safe and incident-free, according to police.

As of 9 a.m., there had been no thefts reported and no serious crowd problems in stores like Target and Wal-Mart, Lt. John Mueller said.

Police, however, did walk through Wal-Mart before the Black Friday crowds arrived to go over what Mueller called a “pre-emptive plan.”

Stampedes on the unofficial shopping holiday have occasionally been a problem at large retailers like Wal-Mart — including an incident in New York last year that left one employee dead — so this year the chain contacted local police stations across the country to go over safety plans, Mueller said.

The lieutenant said traffic in town picked up around 2:30 a.m., but Wal-Mart and other stores were able to handle the crowds.

Mueller said there weren’t extra officers on duty, but they did make sure to patrol the parking lots in front of Wal-Mart and Target.

The day before

On the day before Black Friday, drunken driving was a minor issue in town, Mueller said.

There were two reported DWIs in Mower County on Thanksgiving.

One person was simply stopped by an officer, while another suffered minor head injuries in a crash but was quickly released from Austin Medical Center, according to police reports.

Thanksgiving weekend is regularly among the deadliest holidays for drunken driving accidents, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.