30 Insane Black Friday Incidents
These Black Friday videos will make you want to stay home on November 24th. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the craziest and most unbelievable stories involving Black Friday madness.
Transcript
00:00 "What some Black Friday shoppers overlooked left loved ones stunned."
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the craziest
00:09 and most unbelievable stories involving Black Friday madness.
00:13 "Now that victim was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced
00:16 dead around six o'clock eastern standard time."
00:19 Mall Fight Unknown
00:27 YouTube is filled with crazy videos of Black Friday brawlers,
00:31 and this is one of the most chaotic. On October 31, 2011, YouTube channel The Ahmed Life
00:39 uploaded a video titled "Epic Black Friday Fight Breaks Out at Mall."
00:43 The video isn't of the greatest quality, and it's filmed at a dizzying angle,
00:48 but it clearly shows a massive brawl occurring in the middle of a mall.
00:52 Unfortunately, not much is known about the fight, as The Ahmed Life doesn't give any details.
00:58 Regardless, the raw video depicts the violent bedlam that can occur
01:02 on any random Black Friday and in any random mall.
01:06 Cole's Fight - Tustin, California
01:15 Imagine going out to snag some Black Friday deals and returning home with a criminal record.
01:21 "I'm a criminal."
01:22 Well, that's pretty much what happened on the morning of November 28, 2014.
01:27 It was just after 1 o'clock when five people got into a tussle in a Tustin Cole's.
01:32 The store's security team told police that three women were responsible for starting the fight,
01:38 and all three were arrested. Two victims were left with facial lacerations,
01:43 with one being taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
01:47 It's unclear what the women were fighting over, but surely it was not worth this.
01:52 "Will she be okay?"
01:53 "She's gonna be fine. She's been sleeping all day."
01:56 Vehicular Assault - Covington, Washington
02:00 "I am so sorry, man. I am so sorry. I didn't even effing see you at all, man."
02:06 Car accidents probably happen all the time on Black Friday,
02:09 especially little fender benders in overcrowded parking lots.
02:13 But some accidents are a little more extreme than others.
02:17 During the 2012 Black Friday event, a 71-year-old man from Covington, Washington,
02:23 drove to a nearby Walmart to hit up the deals. He was allegedly driving drunk,
02:28 and hit two people in the parking lot, pinning one underneath his SUV.
02:33 Both were rushed to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center with the woman who got pinned in serious
02:38 condition. Meanwhile, the driver was confronted by the police and arrested for vehicular assault.
02:45 The Man Who Came Prepared - Boynton Beach, Florida
02:49 "This is a battle of war. You gotta become war."
02:53 There's coming prepared for Black Friday madness, and then there's arming yourself like Rambo.
02:58 One Florida man went a little too far in the latter direction. In 2010, 49-year-old Christopher
03:05 Scott was arrested at a Florida Walmart for carrying a small army's worth of hardware.
03:10 Police were patrolling the crowded store when they found Scott carrying a .40 caliber Glock,
03:16 a 30-round magazine, two concealed knives, and a pepper grenade.
03:21 Scott was arrested and charged with numerous crimes, including carrying a concealed firearm.
03:27 "Please call security!"
03:28 "Every day for eight years, I have brought pepper spray into this office to protect myself
03:34 and my fellow employees. And every day for eight years, people have laughed at me."
03:39 The Xbox Brawl - Unknown
03:41 "Anyone here?"
03:42 "What's up, Jeff?"
03:46 We return to YouTube for this video uploaded by user TruthForFree. The footage, uploaded in
03:52 November 2008, has been seen over 44,000 times, and shows a pile of bodies squirming for an Xbox
03:59 360. A handful of people, including what looks to be a young teenager, writhe and yell as they
04:06 fight to get their hands on the last game console. It reminds you of a crazy pile-up in a football
04:12 game after someone fumbles the ball. It's just an every-man-for-himself flurry of limbs, each
04:17 fighting over the coveted item at the bottom of the pile. And darn it, the kid walks away empty-handed.
04:24 "That might really get with goodbyes, so—"
04:35 A Rush to the Deals - Altamont Springs, Florida
04:38 "Live at the Altamont Mall, with more on the mayhem from the moment those doors open. Gail?"
04:44 That Florida heat can make people do crazy things, like line up at one in the morning outside a
04:49 Macy's. The Altamont Mall in Florida opened its doors in the wee hours to a flurry of eager
04:55 shoppers, all of whom were a little too keen on getting inside. In a chaotic scene taken from a
05:01 horror movie, shoppers were squashed like pancakes against locked doors, while employees yelled at
05:07 people to back away. According to one woman, the crowd got so riled up that they began pushing
05:13 children and pregnant women. None of this was captured on video, but we can only imagine the
05:18 scene. "Oh, it was bad. People were fighting each other. There was a pregnant lady and they pushed
05:23 her, and then somebody got in fights over the kids, pushing the kids."
05:28 Shot over a TV - Queens, New York
05:31 "Hey look, that house is the only reason we started working this block in the first place.
05:35 Ever since I laid eyes on that house, I wanted it."
05:37 Some people don't go shopping on Black Friday. They let other people do the shopping,
05:42 and then violently procure whatever it is they bought. Back in 2009, 64-year-old Bentley White
05:49 bought a brand new 47-inch television and took it to his home in Queens. Three criminals broke in
05:55 and shot White in the stomach before fleeing with his new TV. But the bandits couldn't fit
06:01 the TV into their getaway car, so they simply dumped the TV on the road and left without it.
06:07 Luckily, White received life-saving surgery and recovered from the shooting.
06:12 "Hey, Officer, how do you like following a guy that sells TVs?"
06:16 "About as much as I like following a guy who steals them."
06:22 An attempted Walmart theft - Kennewick, Washington
06:25 "You are in big trouble."
06:29 Black Friday thefts are not rare, and neither are failed Black Friday thefts.
06:35 Around 12.30pm on November 26th, 2021, a suspect entered the Kennewick Walmart with no plans of
06:42 paying for their merchandise. They grabbed some stuff from the store and simply walked out the
06:47 doors, prompting a confrontation with the loss prevention officer. The suspect pulled a gun
06:52 and was in turn shot by the officer. While the injured suspect initially fled the scene,
06:58 they were later found and arrested. Luckily, the loss prevention officer was not injured
07:03 in the scuffle.
07:04 "You're a thief."
07:05 "Excuse me?"
07:08 A parking space shooting - Reno, Nevada
07:13 "Finally."
07:14 "Thanks."
07:17 "Been out here all day."
07:18 Parking on Black Friday is no joke. In fact, some are willing to resort to violence.
07:24 On Thanksgiving night in 2016, one man was shot in the parking lot outside of a Reno Walmart.
07:30 Unfortunately, the victim did not make it, and the suspect fled the scene. Investigators claimed
07:36 that the shooting was over a parking spot, but they also uncovered more to the story.
07:41 According to later information, the victim possibly attacked the suspect's car with a weapon,
07:46 prompting the suspect to shoot him in self-defense. Either way, a fight over a parking space resulted
07:52 in loss of life, and that is not something you ever want to hear.
07:56 "People will kill each other for a parking space in New York,
07:59 because they think if I don't get this one, I may never get a space."
08:03 Target Petition - Corona, California
08:06 Much like Christmas, Black Friday has been experiencing some major creep.
08:11 What was once a one-day affair is now an entire shopping event,
08:14 and Black Friday has slowly crawled back into Thanksgiving Day.
08:18 "Families are getting ready to feast on Thanksgiving dinner. Others are lining up
08:21 for some very early Black Friday bargains."
08:26 This greatly upset Casey St. Clair, a Target employee who was scheduled to work on Thanksgiving
08:31 Day between 9pm and 5.15am the next morning. This is because many retailers, including Target,
08:38 were starting Black Friday at 8pm the night before. St. Clair started an online petition
08:44 to stop these companies from opening on Thanksgiving night, which earned over 374,000
08:51 signatures. While this made the news, it didn't convince retailers to change their tune.
08:57 "I'm here for the Insignia 58-inch 4K TV."
09:00 "Eager shoppers spending part of their Thanksgiving holiday waiting in line,
09:04 bracing the cold and rain."
09:06 Urban Outfitters Riot - Thousand Oaks, California
09:10 "That is so dumb."
09:11 "That is gonna go viral, Jerry."
09:14 Before Urban Outfitters was even open for Black Friday in 2011,
09:19 the Thousand Oaks mall in California was packed with shoppers. The mass of people
09:24 remained surprisingly calm, at least until the first employee walked by the gate.
09:29 "Oh gosh."
09:32 The initial shouting had a note of celebration,
09:35 but the mob's screams became deafening as they rushed through the entrance.
09:39 With the crowd pouring in like a zombie horde at Brains R Us,
09:50 you can see anti-theft sensors bend and break under the weight of the swarm.
09:55 With all the damage done, it's a miracle no one was injured at the Thousand Oaks mall.
10:01 Towel turbulence - various.
10:03 "You can disturb me all you want, I love towels."
10:05 Also in 2011, hordes of Walmart shoppers all over the U.S. lost their minds digging through
10:12 towels. Glorious towels, of all things.
10:15 "Oh y'all, some towels for real. Over some towels, y'all. Over some towels."
10:22 The eager beavers tore through the crates like it was the end of days,
10:26 and absorbent fabric was the only way to stave off a presumably soggy apocalypse.
10:32 Some shoppers even ended up in the bins themselves,
10:36 while one woman dramatically tore free of the cloth-mad crowd with her sweet,
10:40 sweet prizes held aloft.
10:42 While we all love a good sale, you'd think these towels were gold-plated,
10:47 diamond-encrusted Ferraris in disguise.
10:50 Towels continue to be a top seller on Black Friday, with similar outbursts a regular occurrence.
10:57 Tesco turmoil - Manchester, England.
11:00 2014 was such a hectic Black Friday for the city of Manchester that police were called out to seven
11:07 Tesco locations around the city. Three people were arrested for violence, and hundreds of others
11:13 refused to leave a store even though all stock was gone. Useful fact - you can't buy things from
11:19 an empty store. Another Tesco closed within an hour of opening due to fights and injuries from
11:25 a falling television set. There were chaotic scenes at Tescos in the rest of the UK too,
11:37 with one customer in Cardiff reporting that people were even biting each other in scuffles
11:42 that could give even American Black Friday blowouts a run for their money.
11:46 Waffle riot - Little Rock, Arkansas.
11:50 We love waffles, but there's gotta be a line somewhere.
11:54 In 2011, $2 waffle irons transformed Walmart shoppers in Arkansas
11:59 into a seething sea of waffle-loving monsters.
12:03 The Little Rock store saw people ripping into the bins like it was feeding time at the zoo,
12:12 with some emerging from the shrieking, heaving mass, holding as many as six irons at a time.
12:19 It's like the mosh pit at a metal concert, but no one's having a good time and everyone hates
12:24 each other. Oh, and everyone is there to see… waffles?
12:27 I love waffles, let's go there.
12:29 Gift certificate drop - Torrance, California.
12:32 As part of their 2006 holiday sales promotion, the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance,
12:42 California dropped 500 gift certificates from the ceiling in balloons. 2,000 people showed up,
12:49 however, which turned the friendly event into a vicious free-for-all. The resulting stampede
12:54 left nine people injured and one elderly woman hospitalized. The mall's staff was completely
13:00 unprepared for this reaction, and called in the fire department. One teen was seen vaulting over
13:06 picket fences and holiday displays to escape the out-of-control crowd. Not really worth it for a
13:12 $25 sushi voucher. Free sushi? Ah, yes!
13:16 El Paso Showdown - El Paso, Texas.
13:19 How badly do you really need that 50-inch TV? Enough to trample an old lady? To take a swing
13:26 at a cop? Oh, stop it. It's just TV. Shoppers at this El Paso Walmart in 2015 thought so,
13:33 overwhelming police.
13:34 People battled it out around the television pallets, shoving and punching, and one 23-year-old
13:45 man even trampled an elderly woman before an officer pulled him off. The crazed shopper fought
13:51 back before the cops were able to overpower him. Similar melees were filmed on the floor,
13:57 with the elderly going at it just as hard as the youngins.
14:00 Sneaker Madness - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
14:07 When an Adidas store in Vancouver, British Columbia was offering a rare NMD
14:13 "babe shoe" on Black Friday 2016, things got a little crazy. The masses got so rowdy ahead
14:19 of the store opening that chants and fights started to break out. With the streets already
14:24 crowded from nearby bars and clubs, police were called to the location. Eventually,
14:30 a man took his shirt off and started whipping people around him with his belt.
14:34 "Police arrived on scene shortly after this shirtless man started using his belt like a whip
14:39 and arrested the man."
14:41 After another civilian choked him, the man was eventually arrested. The incident was so out of
14:46 hand that Adidas called off the sale and raffled off the shoes instead.
14:51 "Quite a few people in the middle of the road just fighting. I don't know why."
14:54 Marine Injured at Best Buy - Augusta, Georgia.
14:58 Corporal Philip Duggan, a U.S. Marine Corps reservist, was volunteering at a Toys for Tots
15:04 stand outside a Georgia Best Buy when things went from festive to violent. Unbeknownst to him,
15:11 Tracy Attaway had been found inside the store attempting to steal a Dell laptop.
15:16 After giving up on the computer, Attaway bolted, defending his exit by brandishing a knife and
15:22 knocking over at least one employee. When the man ran out of the store,
15:26 Corporal Duggan clotheslined him, but in the resulting skirmish, Attaway sliced the man's back.
15:32 "Corporal Duggan's first thought."
15:34 "I really can't believe he messed up my uniform."
15:36 Although the wound was not life-threatening, Duggan was hospitalized, receiving three stitches,
15:41 while Attaway was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and armed robbery.
15:47 Owing to his 30 priors, Attaway eventually earned a life sentence.
15:51 Walmart Brawl Sends Cop to Hospital - Rialto, California.
15:56 "Police say that around 6.45 a fight broke out between three people in line outside."
16:02 When a Walmart in California decided to open an hour earlier than planned on Thanksgiving night,
16:07 mayhem followed. With as many as 5,000 people on the scene, customers got competitive,
16:13 and no fewer than three fistfights broke out. While two occurred inside the store over products,
16:19 another kicked off outside, allegedly because someone cut the line.
16:24 When one man got out of his car to throw down, police attempted to stop the brawl,
16:28 which didn't go so well for at least one cop. Raymond Rice, who was on parole,
16:33 put up more of a fight than expected, resulting in a broken wrist for the would-be arresting officer.
16:39 "There's some tensions that flared up, reference people cutting in lines. A fight broke outside
16:45 the store between three individuals." Police did manage to arrest Rice,
16:49 while the officer required medical care.
16:51 Police Tackle Allegedly Shoplifting Grandpa - Buckeye, Arizona.
16:57 "Are we gonna get in trouble for this?"
16:59 "No, if someone says anything, just tell them that your grandpa's old and doesn't know what he's
17:05 doing." Gerald Newman and his grandson, Nicholas Nava, were video game shopping at an Arizona
17:11 Walmart when they were pulled into a bout of Black Friday madness. According to Nicholas,
17:16 customers were fighting over the games when Newman tucked one into his waistband for safekeeping,
17:21 only to be questioned by police for the maneuver.
17:24 "One of the people saw my grandpa put the game in his shirt and then told the officer,
17:30 and then that's when the officer flipped him and then handcuffed him."
17:34 Reports conflict about what happened next. Police said the man resisted arrest,
17:39 and on-scene CNN reporters said he was fully cooperating. But all agree that Newman was
17:44 then taken to the ground by a police-issued leg sweep. "Are you sure that was necessary for
17:49 shoplifting?" Out cold for 10 minutes, Newman required four stitches to the face before being
17:55 jailed for shoplifting and resisting arrest, while shoppers accused the police of using
18:00 unnecessary force. LA Walmart Pepper Spray Incident - Porter Ranch, California
18:06 If you're gonna bargain hunt, come prepared. One 32-year-old woman did just that when she
18:12 hit up the Porter Ranch Walmart in Los Angeles in 2011. "There was a lot of people who got it
18:17 in their eyes, so they were burning, they were screaming, crying. Yeah, it was bad."
18:21 Armed with pepper spray, the shopper let loose on her fellow customers when a crate of video
18:26 games was being unwrapped. As many as 20 people were sprayed, and other minor injuries occurred
18:32 due to the ensuing panic and confusion. Stranger still, amid a crowd fighting for half-off games,
18:39 Wii's, and Xboxes, the woman managed to pay for her purchases and slip out of the store unnoticed,
18:45 eventually turning herself in a day later. While the police didn't necessarily accept her
18:50 self-defense claim, they also didn't have enough evidence to charge her,
18:54 and so she was free to walk and spray again. Late Night Mugging - San Leandro, California
19:02 The shopping high for cousins Christopher, Raphael, and Javier Murillo didn't last long.
19:07 After the cousins left a California Walmart, robbers in a Buick rolled up and demanded they
19:12 give up their haul. When one of the alleged muggers, Tony Phillips, tried to steal Raphael's
19:18 gold necklace, a fight broke out. Phillips' accomplice, Detwane Watson, then fired a gun
19:24 at Christopher, shooting him in the neck, just missing his carotid artery and leaving him in
19:29 critical condition. Watson then fled in the Buick, leaving Phillips behind and subdued by the
19:35 cousins. Phillips was arrested on sight, but Watson became the subject of a manhunt, and was
19:41 arrested two weeks later. Fortunately, Christopher survived the ordeal, while Phillips and Watson
19:46 faced charges of armed robbery and attempted homicide. Woman Trampled in Stampede - Grand
19:53 Rapids, Michigan In 2005, an especially rowdy crowd in Grand
19:59 Rapids, Michigan, charged into Walmart when it opened at 5 a.m. and knocked a pregnant woman
20:05 down. As seems to be a running theme on this list, customers continued to push through as she lay on
20:10 the ground. "The mad dash into a Walmart store knocked shoppers to the ground near Grand Rapids,
20:15 Michigan at 5 in the morning." Aside from the 13-year-old girl who was trampled and hospitalized
20:20 for her troubles, it seems that no one else came to the woman's aid, nor did they help the poor
20:26 lady who was also trampled and lost her wig in the melee. "We're all about this. It's been all
20:33 about this." Sleep-deprived father crashes car. Palo Alto, California
20:38 Black Friday 2012 was nothing short of tragic for the Tendell family. Driving home from shopping
20:44 and operating on three hours of sleep, Arvind Tendell nodded off just before 7 a.m., crashing
20:51 his Lexus SUV and rolling it multiple times. Tendell survived with injuries, as did his wife
20:57 and two of his daughters. However, daughters Nisha and Sheetal were thrown from the vehicle and
21:03 killed. Neither had been wearing a seat belt, and all four daughters had been crammed into
21:08 seating for three as the SUV was packed with their purchases. Meanwhile, a police officer
21:14 was roadside helping some folks change a tire when the Lexus struck his car, injuring the officer and
21:20 causing the cruiser to hit one of the motorists, bringing the total to two dead, six injured,
21:26 and earning Tendell two charges of vehicular manslaughter.
21:31 Parking spot dispute Tallahassee, Florida
21:34 Tensions were so high outside a Tallahassee Walmart in 2012 that customers were fighting
21:39 over parking spaces rather than discounts. After two couples got in a heated argument outside the
21:46 store, one man pulled out a gun and shot a man and woman, who were rushed to the hospital. Another
21:52 customer reported dozens of shoppers running inside during the shooting, in an attempt to avoid
21:57 gunfire. Things must have escalated fast, considering the assault happened at midday
22:03 rather than the usual midnight rush. Luckily, the victims were not critically injured,
22:08 and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at the time.
22:11 Toys R Us spat Palm Desert, California
22:16 And the investigation here is continuing, and there's a great many answers to questions that
22:21 can't be answered at this particular time.
22:23 You never expect a trip to Toys R Us to end in a shootout. Things in Palm Desert, California,
22:29 began around 11.30 a.m., when two female customers got into a verbal spat that soon became a physical
22:36 conflict. When one of the women was hurt, the men they were with drew handguns, with one man firing
22:42 into the air and then at the other man. The two chased each other through the store, with a
22:48 reported five or six shots fired in the process. When the pair reached the checkout, the showdown
22:54 ended with both men killing the other. Although the store was packed, no one really knows what
22:59 set the two couples off, but it was reportedly not the result of competitive shopping.
23:04 A Fatal Mistake San Antonio, Texas
23:10 After dropping his wife off at a San Antonio Walmart, Isidro Zarate went to break up a fight
23:16 in the parking lot. As he watched a man hold a woman's hair and beat her, Zarate drove up and
23:22 said, quote, "Take your hands off her." The 21-year-old assailant immediately pulled out a gun
23:28 and fatally shot Isidro. Zarate's passenger was injured with shrapnel, and an additional pedestrian
23:35 was hit by a stray bullet. The shooter was caught 10 miles away and later sentenced to life in
23:40 prison. The merciless shopper killing is even more tragic considering Isidro left behind four
23:46 children, and all for simply trying to help. Deadly Walmart Stampede
23:52 Valley Steam, New York Shortly before a Long Island,
23:56 New York Walmart was set to open for Black Friday '08, customers, lined up in the hopes of scoring
24:02 deeply discounted flat-screen TVs, began hitting, shoulder-checking, and pushing at the store's
24:08 glass doors. Employees tried to contain the situation, but the crowd burst in, taking down
24:19 seasonal worker Jimmy Damore in the process. Hundreds trampled Damore, and even pushed through
24:25 the police and paramedics tending to him. Within an hour, Damore had died, but shoppers were not
24:32 deterred. Additionally, four other people, including a heavily pregnant woman, were also
24:39 injured, with police calling the whole situation "utter chaos." As a result of the tragedy, Walmart
24:45 promised better crowd control in the future, but as we've seen from today's list, that hasn't always
24:51 panned out. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to
25:00 get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all
25:06 of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
25:11 Target shoppers let a man die, South Charleston, West Virginia
25:17 "It's a very unique night in retail." By all accounts, West Virginian Walter Vance was a
25:22 well-loved, compassionate man, but that compassion was not returned in Vance's final moments. A 61
25:29 year old pharmacist with a history of heart problems, Vance ventured out into the excitement
25:34 of Black Friday 2011, shortly after Target's midnight opening to buy more Christmas decorations
25:40 for his store. "Those who worked for Walter Vance say around Christmas time, he was the exact
25:45 opposite of a scrooge." Sometime soon after, however, Vance collapsed while the herded masses
25:50 of shoppers not only passed by, but stepped over him as he lay dying. An off-duty paramedic was an
25:57 exception, as was a nurse who attempted to give him CPR, but for everyone else, Vance was little
26:03 more than an obstacle standing in the way of cheap merchandise. Have you been embroiled in any Black
26:09 Friday scuffles? Let us know in the comments. "Uh, excuse me, uh, I was waiting for that space."
26:16 "Yeah? Tough!"
26:17 [Music]