pardon the poor grammar and formatting. this is slightly tweaked from a jabber conversation:
so, a rendition of "my night". first i drove to pg plaza and a bunch of nerds started making fun of me "for thinking i'd honestly get a PS3 getting in line at 10:30 the night before" - ("we'll, I'm 5th in line and i've been here 38 hours").
then i drove to greenbelt and chilled there for like a half hour, then, looking at my blackberry, i realized i might have about a 20% chance of getting one so i headed up to arundel mills.
at arundel mills there is a best buy, circuit city, wal mart, & FYE.
so walmart had a short line, and announced they only had 4 consoles, so that was a wash.
all of the others were on "mall" property
so then i go over to best buy, and there's no line but the security guard announces "no one's allowed on mall property till 6:00 am". so i apologize, and drive around a bit.
best buy is supposed to have (min) 26 at each store
20 60GB models, 6 20GB models
they may have more but that was their "minimums"
so at that point i drive over to circuit city and they have a sign in the window (on the inside) stating that they only have 8 (scratched out) with 5 written over it and mall security says you can't line up till 6:00 am.
so
at this point it's 1:00 am and i drive over to walmart and sleep in the parking lot
periodically, i wake up and do the loop. all's the same except at 2:30 there is a sign on the outside of circuit city
"DUE TO A SHIPPING ERROR, WE WILL NOT HAVE THE UNITS"
but since that was on the outside i disregarded it as disinformation and go back to my post and go to sleep
at 4:45 i wake up and do the lap... only now there is 600 people outside of best buy
with 2 security guards trying to keep them under control and it's not working
so the county boys are brought in...
and then the state...
and then at 5:45 they announce that because the mob is so unruly they are refusing to sell the units
i immediately take the hint and haul ass over to circuit city. at that point
there is a mob of about 30 people crowded around the front door of CC, i say to myself "thats not very productive" and stand off to one side leaning against the wall
then about 20 more people show up and the mob gets worse and at 6:00 am they start demanding that CC open the store
and try and force the doors open i again say "what the fuck" and stand back a bit further and then they announce "form a line"
to which a line starts to form and i'm like 10 back (standing in the same spot i was in) save for a mob of 20 people who refuse to move from the door.
this continues with the security guards yelling at people, the line growing, etc etc
at this point i assume they're going to do a lottery unlike the land rush method they sometimes do
because land rush is what causes people to get trampled, anyways, i digress.
i'm standing in line, it's like 6:15 the mob still isn't listening to any of the security
the head of security is fed up freaks out
and points and me and yells "YOU CALM DOWN AND GET TO THE END OF THE LINE, RIGHT NOW!!!!!"
to which people start laughing at me. she does this to a couple of other people, then drags us back there to make sure we go.
at this point, i'm confused, because i've been dead silent the whole time avoiding the mob. when we get to the back she whispers "i'd suggest the 5 of you get around to the back of the store asap" we're escorted to the back. then we're let in through the stereo install area and then held in the store for an hour
because......
at this point people have started threatening violence on us
and multiple people were arrested for brandishing weapons
so we're held in the store until 7:30
and we have to give our keys to employees
who (in street clothes) drive our cars around back
so we can discreetly exit with electronics in tow
The Payoff
