Woman wets herself to keep place in line for $50 Apple iBooks

56 Comments

“A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line. ‘This is total, total chaos,’ said Latoya Jones, 19, who lost one of her flip-flops in the ordeal and later limped around on the sizzling blacktop with one foot bare,” Kristen Gelineau reports for The Associated Press.

According to the report, an estimated 5,500 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway to score a 4-year-old Apple iBook for $50. “Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting since 1 a.m. When the gates opened, it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl’s stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.”

“Seventeen people suffered minor injuries, with four requiring hospital treatment, Henrico County Battalion Chief Steve Wood said. There were no arrests. ‘It’s rather strange that we would have such a tremendous response for the purchase of a laptop computer and laptop computers that probably have less-than-desirable attributes,’ said Paul Proto, director of general services for Henrico County. ‘But I think that people tend to get caught up in the excitement of the event it almost has an entertainment value.’ Blandine Alexander, 33, said one woman standing in front of her was so desperate to retain her place in line that she urinated on herself,” Gelineau reports.

Full article here.

Video report (Windows Media Player 9 unfortunately required) here.

MacDailyNews Take: Oh, the humanity! Or lack thereof. You simply couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried! Urinating on oneself, beating each other with folding chairs, crushed strollers, seventeen injuries, and, worst of all, a lost flip flop!

Oh, and Mr. Proto, the “less-than-desirable” iBooks may be four-years-old and a bit beaten up by students, but they still come with Apple’s Mac OS X for only $50. If, in 2009, we hear of a woman urinating on herself for a four-year-old $50 Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2, we’ll switch to Windows Vista.

People couldn’t be crazier, Henrico County Public Schools officials couldn’t be stupider, and Apple couldn’t be happier. Think of the free publicity this will generate!

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Henrico citizens stampede for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Henrico closes $50 Apple iBook sale to general public; only Henrico residents can buy – August 03, 2005
Henrico moves $50 Apple iBook sale to Richmond International Raceway due overwhelming demand – July 28, 2005
Apple announces 30,000 iBooks deal with Florida’s Broward County Public Schools – July 27, 2005
Henrico residents object to public sale of Apple iBooks – July 26, 2005
Henrico County Public Schools to sell Apple 12-inch iBooks for $50 each on August 9th – July 25, 2005
Henrico blasted for choosing Dell laptops with Windows XP over Apple iBooks with Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Henrico school officials on Apple to Dell switch: The logo will change, but the tool is the same – April 30, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Henrico County Apple iBook plan in jeopardy? – April 02, 2005
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005
More schools experience Windows virus, worm problems while Macs just keep working – August 22, 2003
A tale of two school systems: Windows schools crippled while Mac schools unaffected – August 21, 2003

56 Comments

  6. C L A S S I C !!!

    Here’s my favorite quote from the story:

    “Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.”

    Reply

  14. Why wouldn’t the school district sell the computers for something closer to the true value? Surely this school district doesn’t have so much money they couldn’t use an extra $50-$200 per computer?

    Reply

  16. See what happens when you don’t have Apple employees and security making the line. You never see this at an Apple store, not even on the release day for a product. Of course Apple does have any “get them now or never get one” type sales, but I’m sure Apple could do a better job than this county did.

    I wonder if Steve will visit the people who had to go to the hospital, and drop them off a brand new laptop. I hope he does.

    Magic word = “indeed”

    Reply

Reader Feedback (You DO NOT need to log in to comment. If not logged in, just provide any name you choose and an email address after typing your comment below)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.