Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
At 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, about 10 minutes before the Easter egg hunt at Shankweiler\u2019s Drive-In Theatre was supposed to begin, Matt McClanahan headed up the hill with a megaphone.<\/p>\n
He had done this before. The in Lehigh County theater had hosted the same event last year, and it had gone well. This year, he and his wife, Lauren McChesney, had prepared even more carefully. They had hidden more than 3,000 eggs and prizes, divided the hunt into age groups, and spent the evening repeating the schedule over the radio. At 7:15 p.m., McClanahan would make a few announcements and start the egg hunt, with the youngest children going first.<\/p>\n
As he had the year before, as he walked up the hill, McClanahan turned on the megaphone\u2019s siren to get everyone\u2019s attention and call families toward the hunt. It was meant to be a warning. But to a few kids already near the eggs, it was a starter pistol. Someone yelled, \u201cGo,\u201d and, suddenly, the kids started running toward the eggs. McClanahan tried to stop them. He tried to tell them to go back, that the hunt hadn\u2019t started yet, but it was too late. \u201cIt was like a switch was thrown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A stampede of children \u2014 and, more disturbingly, adults \u2014 was now rushing toward the eggs, ignoring the staggered start times and the rules McClanahan had spent all day explaining. Within 45 seconds, all 3,000 eggs were gone. Dozens of families never even made it up the hill. Children were bawling. \u201cIt was devastating,\u201d McClanahan said. \u201cI was almost crying myself.\u201d <\/p>\n
He and McChesney spent the rest of the evening trying to make up for the mess. They handed out free popcorn and movie passes to kids who didn\u2019t get any eggs. But the damage was already done. <\/p>\n
Later, Shankweiler\u2019s posted an apology on Facebook<\/a>, stating that the hunt \u201cdid not go as planned\u201d and calling it a \u201cfrankly horrifying experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Shankweiler\u2019s was not the only Pennsylvania business whose Easter egg hunt fell apart this spring. At least two others \u2014 Kauffman\u2019s Bar-B-Que in Bethel, Berks County, and Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre Township \u2014 also ended the day posting bruised explanations on Facebook after their own hunts unraveled in strikingly similar ways.<\/p>\n At Kauffman\u2019s Bar-B-Que, organizers split children into five age groups, each with its own section of the egg hunt. But, according to the business\u2019 Facebook post<\/a>, when a handful of kids in other age groups \u201creleased themselves\u201d before their scheduled start times, the whole thing fell apart. <\/p>\n \u201cWe had no choice but to let the other kids go early as well,\u201d said the post. \u201cWe are deeply sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n