What promised to be a fun-filled Easter egg hunt for children in Orange, Connecticut, quickly turned into a bloody shove fest after rowdy parents stormed into the field even before organizers officially started the event. The ensuing chaos resulted in kids being bumped, trampled and pushed into mud.
CNN reported that PEZ Candy had to call off its third annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday after parents unceremoniously started collecting eggs ahead of the intended start time. The field was initially divided into three sections to accommodate three separate age groups, but when the first field was about to be opened, parents disregarded the boundaries and flocked to the field altogether.
"When it came time, at like 10:30 a.m. ET, the parents just bum-rushed that area," concerned mother Nicole Welch shared to WFSB. "When my son left, he had a broken basket, and he was hysterically crying."
Commenting on the official PEZ Facebook page, Val McCormick likened the mess to Black Friday Sales at Wal-Mart but much worse. He said the toddler section of the field was filled with greedy parents. the horrified father blame PEZ for not having sufficient personnel to control the crowd.
Other parents defended the company by stating that it's the parents' fault why the event turned out the way that it did. Kym Vance said, "Thank you to PEZ for trying to do something nice for the children of the community. Shame on the parents who ruined it because they have no manners."
In a press release shared to Fox 4, PEZ admitted that they just couldn't stop the horde of parents from swarming into the field. After the fiasco, PEZ personnel tried to pacify the situation by providing additional eggs and candies to kids.
"We made efforts to get everyone something before they left and passed out tons of candy and coupons," read the statement. "Due to the actions of a few, the good intent turned into a mess."
