Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot

pikester writes "What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them? You get an iStampede of course! Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you'll being looking for video of the whole thing. CNN has some extra details as well." From the article: "Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting for hours in line. 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."

That's right ladies and gentlemen

[Loco3KGT (141999)]

That's my state's citizens, neighbors, and friends at their best!

I couldn't be more proud.

*tear*

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[Peyna (14792)]

According to the 14th Amendment, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[by Anonymous Coward]

Every Nation has to grew up.

I hear these rumors on the internets.. but alls I can asks, is... Is our children learning?

This story wont get many posts.

[deft (253558)]

Everyone is at the sale...

Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse

[N8F8 (4562)]

The obvious point here should be that the countyr was sellign them too cheap. Wasting taxpayer dollars. They should have sold them on ebay [ebay.com] where they could have gotten much more than $50 without the liability of riots.

Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse

[bnenning (58349)]

Exactly. Government officials ignorant of basic economics, what are the odds?

Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse

[miahrogers (34176)]

The computers should have been auctioned or a lottery could have been set up to allow only a certain number to purchase them. The way it was setup was very irresponsible -- like throwing 150,000 dollars cash into the middle of a busy street!! (Really, if you guess a $200 market value on each of these that's ($200-$50)*$1000=$150,000 dollars into the street).

Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse

[smooth wombat (796938)]

It's terrible to see people behave like this, and I also fault the authorities for failing to provide adequate crowd control.

If the people would have behaved themselves there wouldn't have been a need for crowd control.

Unless you're trying to imply that human beings are incapable of acting like the most intelligent creature on the planet as some say we are.

What happened to "No - rush, 10 mins"?

[EmperorKagato (689705)]

OMG! Zerg Rush!

more information

[Ankou (261125)]

I had submitted this article this morning, with a little more information in case people were interested here is what I had posted:
Henrico Co. Schools of VA [k12.va.us] decided to change laptop suppliers at the end of their contract with Apple, opting instead for a contract deal with Dell and Microsoft. The result was a couple thousand laptops of no use. In a first attempt, Henrico Co. [henrico.va.us] was going to sell laptops in a free for all at $50 dollars each, but subsequent meetings and enraged tax payers made them change to limiting the sale (at least this first sale) to Henrico citizens and tax payers. The sale occurred at the Richmond International Raceway [richmondra...omplex.com] where 1000 laptops would be given on a first come first serve basis with proof of residency/tax payments. The facilitators of the event decided to close the main gates of the area until 7 AM and begin the sale at 9 AM. This did little to deter people arriving as early as 1 AM and circling the area until the main gates opened. At 6:54 AM the main gates were opened and a massive stampede of over 12 thousand attendants for the event fought to be the first in line. Injuries (albeit minor according to the Times Dispatch) and chaos ensued. One unconfirmed report I was given by an attendee was of a lady who.s ankle was broken and her baby carriage trampled by the sheer number of people shoving to get through the gates. Police support was supposedly small with off duty officers working, the event planners obviously underestimating the popularity of this event. The details of the event [k12.va.us] including the specs for the iBook (12 inch, G3 500 MHz) can be seen at this posting on the Henrico Co Schools website. In the fall there is to be another sale of which no restriction will be made on buyers, but after today.s incident, one could only imagine that it will differ highly from the chaos of today. Photos of the scene can be viewed at the article in the Richmond Times Dispatch website [timesdispatch.com].

Wow

[Fahrvergnuugen (700293)]

I usually only piss myself over new apple products...

Re:Wow

[Gleep (1840)]

I think she was trying to re-charge the battery in her cellphone...

better links and pictures of riots

[0110011001110101 (881374)]

i posted this story earlier, heres some better links than CNNS regurge crap

local richmond newspaper link [timesdispatch.com]

another local link with slideshow pictures [timesdispatch.com]

Shows us how far we haven't come...

[jo_ham (604554)]

Whenever someone does something like this (selling something for much less than its value) scenes like these always happen.

Ikea did this with a new store in the UK, selling a £500 sofa for £50 and mob scenes resulted, with people fighting in the aisles, people trampled and people stealing sofas off feeble old people who were unable to hang onto their purchase.

When it comes to a bargain, I'm amazed people don't pack heat before setting off for the store.

Under thought and over publicized

[raolin (512968)]

As geeks living in the area my friends and I were interested in getting some cheap computers to set up as servers and various low intensity jobs. The local papers and Henrico County made such a huge deal over this that I am really not that surprised by the turnout. They were selling off used and discarded low end macs, and making it sound like the deal of a lifetime.

I personally think the county would have been better off finding a way to distribute them to low income families and possibly offering classes in their use, but what do I know.

Ibooks are like crack..

[rice0067 (220981)]

All white and promising good stuff. then you get really disappointed by the quality and want to knife your dealer.

For those that went there and did that...

[slusich (684826)]

Now you can get the tshirt too.
http://cgi.ebay.com/HENRICO-COUNTY-50-iBook-t-shir t-kicked-in-the-balls_W0QQitemZ8327177210QQcategor yZ15687QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem [ebay.com]
Seriously, they had to expect this. They should've had a more orderly way to deal with this sale.

A few obvious questions

[deft (253558)]

1. What about those laptops couldnt still run spelling programs? Are the kids teaching programs really running framerates they cant handle? :)

2. Who is the moron that decided that the school didnt need the $? I'm sure those laptops could have paid for quite a few of the new computers they seem to need.

3. Any left?

New Poll?

[whysanity (231556)]

To get a used iBook for $50, I'd be willing to...

• Throw an elbow
• Crush a stroller
• Pee myself
• Throw an old man into the pavement

Um....

[osrevad (796763)]

What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them?

You would get everyone living happily ever after with their iBooks. But there were actaully about 3000 people, which changes everything.

Government waste

[linuxwrangler (582055)]

Weren't these iBooks school district property? I guess it's good to see that the schools in Henrico County are so flush with cash that they can dump their iBooks at what is obviously below market value plus pay for whatever damages and lawsuits may result from their lack of planning.

I've been at similar mega-sales and all it took to prevent chaos was to pass out numbers to people as they arrive then let people enter in small batches. Problem solved and injuries prevented for the cost of a couple dollars of paper.

take this ladies, children, and old men

[kidNexus (898105)]

first official slashdot post from a $50 iBook.

I was there!

[The Grey Clone (770110)]

I happen to live in the Henrico area, and honestly - a fifty dollar computer is a deal you can't beat. I went there with my mother and my sister, however, after people started running, I just wanted out. I only stayed for my sister.

It was chaos. The first people who started running, I don't know what they were thinking, but after that, you HAD to run. There is just something about 12,000 people running at you from behind that kind of makes you run away.

Ended up getting stuck in a huge crowd for several hours, left when the police in riot gear started telling us they only had 300 left.

I don't know if imageshack likes Slashdot or not, but it's worth a try.

I took some pictures of the crowd, I'll post them if anyone is interested. Mine aren't as good as the ones from the times dispatch, but they gave a decent view of how many people were packed in.

Actually ...

[Bearpaw (13080)]

Crazy... Mac users.

Actually, I bet most of 'em were Windows users, driven around the bend by viruses, bugs, and bloat, and desperate to switch. It's the only thing that could explain it.

Re:Disgusting

[shotfeel (235240)]

Do the equivalent in just about any country, and you'll end up with the same thing.

Sad? Yes. American only? No.