Tendo City

Quote:Chaos erupted this morning at the Richmond International Raceway as thousands of people stampeded through the gates in a rush to buy used iBook laptop computers for $50 each.

There were several minor injuries and one person was taken to a hospital with a leg injury, fire Battalion Chief Steve Wood said during a 1 p.m. news conference. In all, 17 people were treated, the majority for heat- or diabetic-related problems, he said.

Thousands of Henrico County residents and/or taxpayers stood in a half-mile-long line as dawn broke while others waited in cars parked nearby or milled about not far from the entrance to RIR. One official estimate put the crowd at 5,500. Other observers estimated more than twice that.

Many had come prepared with books, snacks, umbrellas and chairs. The first car arrived at 1:30 a.m. By 6:30 vehicles were backed up on Laburnum Avenue about a half mile to Carolina Avenue.

Even before the gates opened, the atmosphere turned surly, with people yelling at police officers who were trying to keep the crowd civil.

When the first off-duty police officers arrived at 6:10 a.m., they called for more officers to assist with security, Police Chief Henry W. Stanley said.

Ultimately, up to 45 officers were there, as were fire and rescue personnel.

The gates opened at 6:54 a.m., and the stampede -- literally -- was on. The first crush occurred at the main gate to RIR and the second occurred at the entrance to the building where the 4-year-old iBooks were being sold.

Police Lt. Doug Perry said a few people who acted inappropriately made the situation bad for everyone. When police arrived, he said, they took control of the situation.

One Henrico resident, Devra Sirot, attended the sale with her two young sons and said she feared for their safety.

"My kids almost got stampeded. If it wasn't for these two really strong guys . . . Everyone was stampeding to get in."


She bought three iBooks -- one for her and one for each of her sons.

Once people were inside the building, the sale went smoothly and all 1,000 laptops were sold, officials said. County officials said they will be meeting to review the situation to see what could be done differently in the future.

The laptops were made available at a bargain-basement price after the county school system chose a new vendor -- Dell -- to supply the high schools with laptops. Henrico had used Apple iBooks in its high schools for the past four years.

For more on-the-scene details of the chaotic sale and an account from columnist Mark Holmberg, check out tomorrow's Times-Dispatch.

Hilarious, and yet so very sad. :S

Times Dispatch

lmao

You know that there's 1000 computers for sale, if you arrive late in the day and you see an ocean of people; LEAVE.

I almost went after that. RIR's only a few miles away from me :D

There's a story behind it though, part of it leading to why I didn't end up going.

There were 1000 iBook computers, four years in age as the article said. They were used as part of the Henrico County PS's experiment to use laptops as a major curriculum tool... didn't really work out all that well since kids were abusing them.

In any case, they're all old now and being updated with new ones. So Henrico County announced this sale, 1000 of them at $50 each, first come, first serve to anyone. There was an expected turnout of over 25,000 people then, people flying in from all over the US. Then, Henrico citizens got in an uproar because they paid for these things with their tax dollars, they argued that they should have exclusive pick, which I think is right, and that's what they did, though it got so bad that they weren't able to check IDs anyway.

In any case, it could have been far worse than it was.

There's also video too, in case anyone is interested.

http://www.nbc12.com/servlet/Satellite?p...1784465955

Hahah I heard about this, this is awesome! Don't these people know that no Macintosh product is worth the plastic its encased in, let alone resorting to violence?

I heard about this, absurd.. who'd want a four year old computer anyway, much less a LAPTOP, given that laptops are always worse than desktops (power-wise)?

It's the idea that they can be resold for considerably more than fifty dollars... And hell, I think it's fun that my town finally has something happening that attracts national attention. Last time that happened was when we seceded from the union and made ourselves capital of a nation! :D

Yes, national attention, for exactly 2 hours :D.

Well, everyone needs a computer these days. It doesn't need to play video games for THOSE types :D, it just needs to process words and um... voice comm... voice recording. "Good enough" for what they are using it for. And, let's face it, most of those people are dressed like POOR people. Like, embarressingly poor. Like, supporting 3 children with a job flipping BURGERS poor (well okay that's just not possible). So, if they can run out and get a device that will transform the way they think and work FOREVER (because obviously it's just the lack of portable word processing that is holding them back, as opposed to inherant character flaws), they WILL.

And yes, they will ignore common sense. lazy is correct. Math is power!

Wow, this happened to me when a group of us were giving out free cds after a concert. But that was in Morocco. I thought Americans knew how to be somewhat civil and not mob and attack and hurt other humans in order to get a good deal.

Oh, never mind. I was just reminded of the morning after Thanksgiving.

Darunia Wrote:Hahah I heard about this, this is awesome! Don't these people know that no Macintosh product is worth the plastic its encased in, let alone resorting to violence?

Don't get that argument started again.

Anyway, I would happily take a 4-year-old iBook for $50. My iBook is 5 years old and still runs fine, but I can see why so many people jumped at this deal. Organization was obviously a problem at this sale, though. They should have had people sign-up for the sale ahead of time and insure they were citizens of the county at the time they signed up. Have them pay for the iBook and give them a receipt at the time they sign-up, and give out tickets if a lot of people show up at the same time to sign-up. It sounds simple because it is simple. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but it's sad to see people behave in this way.