Henrico County iBook Sale!

I was there. I saw the beginnings of a riot. I picked up my camp chair and went home.

If you are unfamiliar with these goings on you can find out what the fuss is about here for the time being. I’ll post a link to the inevitable news coverage later. Let me recount to you the events of this morning. Kelly, Brendan and I had a plan. The Henrico Schools website indicated that the gates would open at 7am, the sale would start at 9am, and no camping would be allowed. We piled into Brendan’s truck around 5:15am with one chair each, ready to sit in line for three and a half hours. We thought that would give us a pretty good shot.

Arriving at the raceway complex, we saw a goodly sized line already formed in front of the gates, maybe 200 to 300 people and 20 cars. We were expecting that though, no big deal. We go park the truck and walk over to take our place in line. Walking past the gate we saw 3 police officers keeping order. Take note of that number now. Upon arriving where we thought the end of the line was, we found that it really just went around a corner and down the street. It’s still dark, we can’t see a lot, so we start walking. The end of the line isn’t within view. So we’re walking, walking, walking. The news reporters were saying there were hundreds and hundred of people in line. Liars. There had to be 4 to 5 THOUSAND people there at 5:30am. There were only one thousand iBooks for sale. Still unable to see the end of the line we turned around and went home.

The morning news was on when I got there so the little lady and I cozied up to see what we were missing. The talking heads were sensationalizing the whole thing. “Hundreds and hundreds of people.” Sure, way to give the stragglers hope. There seemed to be some tension building. More and more people had been showing up, people that had followed the rules set down on the website. Upon finding that those who couldn’t follow directions were going to buy all the $50 laptops first, these goody-two-shoes were becoming irate and formed a second line. Threats were made. Those three police officers called for backup.

At 7am the gates were flung open as promised. Line? What line? It was a stampede. You were waiting there since 1:30 in the morning you say? Tough shit, you just found yourself face down on the pavement being trampled. You brought your kid along to stand in line all morning? Firstly, what’s wrong with you? Second, that kid can’t run as fast as you. Better ditch him and hope he makes it out alright. It’s every person for themselves! There’s cheap laptops up for grabs!

I felt sorry for them in a way. Why would so many people throw away their humanity for cheap electronics? The news crew interviewed a woman who had been trampled by several people and was sobbing to the reporter. That's kinda sad. Then I noticed her tee shirt. I have little pity for a person that cries while their shirt screams, “LIQUOR” in large block letters.

Here’s that news link I promised. I hope to god I can find a video of that woman in the tee shirt. That was classic.

Edit: Here's the updated video with the interview with the trampled woman. Click on the "see video" link under the picture of the computer. Check out those threads!

Edit 2: The incident made CNN!