OGDEN -- The frenzy over a new shipment of Beanie Babies sparked a riot here with as many as 60 people pushing and shoving each other before a store opened Tuesday.
Store manager Murray Stone was dumbfounded."I thought there was a line of adults waiting out there," Stone said. "It was infuriating. Take a couple of seconds to think about it. We are talking about a toy."
The trouble started at 9 a.m. before the doors opened at Tina's Hallmark, 4415 Harrison Blvd. There were 480 of the tiny creatures stuffed with beans ready to purchase. There were 60 prospective buyers.
Then someone cut in line.
Someone was armed with a list of Beanies to buy so they could hawk them at higher prices.
Someone got upset.
Stone, shocked by the fighting, called police.
Police were amused.
No toys were destroyed, no one was arrested and the riot never made its way into the business.
But that didn't stop Ogden police officer Bob Hanselman from having a bit of creative fun in his police report.
He wrote of the carnage caused by the riot.
He wrote of how Beanie Babies were ripped apart, their beans scattered on the floor.
The violence escalated and the aftermath was awful, he wrote.
Hanselman said the toy "Ricky Rat" was obviously deceased, missing part of his tail and both of his arms. (Trouble is, Ricky Rat is not a Beanie Baby, just imaginative fodder from a funny officer.)
"Various body parts from other victims were observed, but no survivors were found," the report states.
Hanselman went even further, using a bogus witness account of the melee.
One person "personally witnessed the decapitation of at least two of the babies whose tiny heads were tossed into the air like toys."