World-Record Egg Hunt Descends Into Chaos

Also, no record as crowd scrambles for 510K eggs in Sacramento
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2015 9:29 AM CDT
World-Record Egg Hunt Descends Into Shoving, Chaos
Sacramento's effort to break a world record ran into problems.   (Shutterstock)

In 2007, a Florida Easter egg hunt featured a record-setting 501,000 eggs; yesterday, Sacramento, Calif., sought to break that record with 510,000. But things didn't quite go according to plan, the Sacramento Bee reports. Instead of waiting for all the eggs to be distributed and organizers to say "go," people dove for the plastic eggs as soon as they were dropped. That led to Easter mayhem, with parents pushing and shoving as everyone grappled for the eggs. Some argued over the rules, while one organizer was ignored as she shouted for participants to follow an "honor system" amid confusion over which kids even had VIP tickets. "It was crazy," says the mom of a toddler. "Adults were trampling over us."

Thousands of kids had come, CBS Sacramento reports. "There was no organization at all; they all trampled each other," says a parent. "Little 2- and 3-year-olds were crying. The parents were scooping up all of the eggs for their kids and it was horrible." All this, and the world record wasn't even officially broken, since the eggs arrived too late for Guinness World Record officiants to make a confirmation. The good news: The event made a lot of money for its sponsor charity, which fights human trafficking, "way more" than the group spent, says its CEO. The eggs cost the group, called Blue Heart, about $10,000, but $20 tickets brought in some $140,000. (More Easter stories.)

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