The annual Pez Easter egg hunt in Connecticut turned into chaos on Saturday when a mob of parents swarmed into action before the scheduled time, causing the event to be shut down, reported
WFSB-TV.
Pez officials hid more than 9,000 eggs across three fields at its visitor center in Orange, with staggered start times scheduled for each age group, the television station reported.
Some parents, though, could not hold themselves back for the scheduled start time, said a Pez statement, reported on by WFSB.
"Unfortunately the number of families that came out to participate far exceeded anything we could have possibly planned for," said Pez. "…Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from PEZ staff starting the activity."
"The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time. The crowd then immediately moved to the third field and took over and removed everything well before the activity was to even start."
One parent, Nicole Simmons, told the
Hartford Courant that she did not arrive until 10:40 a.m. because that was start time her 6-year-old daughter's age group. She said a mob of parents had taken over the field by that time.
"We've been there quite a few times before but never have seen a crowd like that for any of their events," Simmons told the Courant. "Even in the few minutes we were there you could see the crowd of people almost like a swarm covering the field and just everywhere with no disregard that there were other people, children and cars around them."
Liz Soarles said on
Facebook that she believed that Pez should have planned better for the crowds.
"Hey thanks for the waste of time and non-existent organization of your egg hunt," Soarles said. "Specific direction 9-12 (age) egg hunt 11a.m. sharp. We drive 2-and-a-half hours to show up 30 min early only to receive a 'sorry, no one listened and they started early.'"
Pez officials said they tried to accommodate as many visitors as possible before shutting the event down, noted WFSB-TV.
"We made efforts to get everyone something before they left and passed out tons of candy and coupons at the front entry and tried to make the best of an unfortunate situation," said Pez.
"Due to the actions of a few, the good intent quickly turned into a mess. ...We only wanted to do good for the local community."
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