HENRICO COUNTY, Va. β Twenty years ago this month, Henrico County Schools had what seemed like a generous idea: sell used Apple iBook laptops to county residents for just $50 each at Richmond International Raceway.
What happened next became a cautionary tale that made national headlines and late-night television jokes.
More than 5,000 people showed up for the sale, with some arriving as early as 1:30 a.m. β six hours before the gates opened. The county had only 1,000 iBooks available.
When the gates finally opened, hundreds of people sprinted toward the building where the laptops were being sold, creating a dangerous stampede that left some people injured.
"There was hundreds of these hoodlums just standing there that wouldn't get in line. They just stormed on through like a flood," one witness told CBS 6.
A mother described the terrifying scene.
"People from the rear end of the line bombarded their way through, pushing us and making me fall on people my husband grabbed my daughter before I hit the ground," she said.
Watch more 2005 laptop chaos coverage
The chaos was so intense that people who fell couldn't get back up as the crowd surged forward.
"Everybody was screaming. I was like, everybody, 'Get off. get off.' And nobody cared. Nobody was paying attention. They were just pushing through," another witness said. "It's definitely not worth a $50 iBook."
Henrico Police called for backup officers and eventually restored order and corralled the unruly crowd.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that 17 people were treated at the scene for injuries including bruises and scrapes, plus heat and diabetic-related problems.
A county official explained to CBS 6 what went wrong.
"Problem was we had such a large crowd to begin with that the crowd then just pressed up against the doors into the building, and therefore there was no space to do that pre-screening, so we had to do the screening within the building."
The official added that once people got inside the building, "they're much more comfortable and frankly, very understanding and very calm."
The computers were sold "as-is" and some were not in the best shape after being used by Henrico students the previous for four years.
Video of the Henrico iBook stampede went viral (or whatever the equivalent of viral was in 2005) and was featured on national news, becoming the subject of late-night television and talk radio jokes across the country.
Do you remember the Henrico iBook stampede? Share your memories with the CBS 6.
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