Yep. It's that important.
Posted on 08/16/2005 3:28:45 PM PDT by I still care
RICHMOND, Va. - 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 as 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.
An estimated 5,500 people turned out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks. The Henrico County school system was selling 1,000 of the computers to county residents. New iBooks cost between $999 and $1,299.
Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting since 1:30 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 and the iBooks sold out by 1 p.m.
"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." (excerpt)
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Selling off laptops that are only 4 years old for $50?
Now that's the kind of financial genius we need running our health care system!
Our Internet at work was down all afternoon, so I ended up listening to the guy on WRVA (that we were talking about).
He had people calling in who where there. The stupidity is just amazing.
Git 'er Done
LOL!!!
That's quite a shirt.
in fairness, the Henrico COunty residents PAID for them in the first place ... so if they wanted to subject themselves to this mess, mazel tov
It's a shame they let it get out of hand. They needed to have devised some sort of "take a number" system. We can't pin any of this on Tim Kaine, can we???!? Disorganized and therefore unsuitable to run the Executive Mansion?
It's a shame they let it get out of hand. They needed to have devised some sort of "take a number" system. We can't pin any of this on Tim Kaine, can we???!? Disorganized and therefore unsuitable to run the Executive Mansion?
Unfortunately, he's not from Henrico County...
Phooey, and apologies for the double post. That's twice tonight. Wonder what's going on with my ISP...
So did you get one Corin?
No, but I peed on somebody...
HA!
Yep. It's that important.
I do not shop on Black Friday or the day after Christmas, let alone any of the other "sale" holidays - why would I even think about doing something like this?????????
I'm a rabid "save anything I can" type shopper - but within limits of reasonability. Stupidity is not in my lexicon when it comes to shopping :)
ROFLMSS!!!!!!!!!!
Considering the amount of porn already downloaded into these laptops; you could probably charge even more. :-)
::evil laughter::
ARGH
Let's say a $25.00 porn surcharge, Thats $25,000.00. Considering $25,000 is the whole expenses. Then you would have $500,000.00, Now it would be wise to open a swiss bank account, Fake your death and live the life in Mexico. W00T
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