PEZ Cancels Annual Easter Egg Hunt Due To Poor Adult Behavior

What a mess. PEZ had to cancel its Annual Easter Egg Hunt this year due to the bad behavior of the adults in attendance. It seems that some adults simply cannot follow directions. Despite PEZ putting out close to 10,000 Easter eggs for the children to find on three separate fields and giving specific instructions on which age group should proceed to which field at what time, some adults decided to do just whatever they wanted and upon commencement of the first hunt on the first field rushed all three fields at the same time, giving little regard to the children in attendance. One parent reported that her son received a bloody nose when a parent pushed him to the ground. Another shared that her son was knocked over and his Easter basket broken.

The three separate hunts over three separate fields were scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by a visit from the Easter bunny.

PEZ cancels annual Easter egg hunt after adults misbehave https://t.co/MZD9HM9r0u via @usatoday

— GodsFavorOnUSA (@JSBarrett60) March 28, 2016

Vince Welch, 4, described what happened to him to NBC Connecticut.

“Somebody pushed me over and take my eggs and it’s very rude of them and they broke my bucket.”

According to the Hartford Courant, over 1,000 participants were present at the event on Saturday morning when the chaos broke out and adults refused to obey instructions that were issued by PEZ staff. PEZ issued a statement to describe had just taken place.

“Unfortunately people chose to enter the first field prior to anyone from PEZ staff starting the activity. The crowd moved to the second field, waited for only a couple of minutes and proceeded to rush the field without being directed to do so and before the posted start time.”

The general manager and other staff on the scene did their best to restore order and gain control, but the adults simply would not listen, according to some participants.

Confectionery company Pez cancels annual Easter egg hunt after parents descend like “locusts” on the site: https://t.co/khIcgQltmS #9News

— Nine News LA (@9NewsLA) March 28, 2016

To make matters worse, according to CNN, now a large number of parents are flooding the Pez Candy USA Facebook page with posts criticizing PEZ for all of the chaos. Other parents are stepping forward on the page to defend the candymaker’s good intentions.

Don Bistro wrote in defense of PEZ on the Facebook page.

“Grow up folks and teach your kids some responsibility by acting like mature adults not rabid dogs.”

Still another parent did blame PEZ for what took place.

“Thanks for the waste of time and non-existent organization of your egg hunt… We drive 2 and a half hours to show up 30 min early only to receive a ‘sorry, no one listened and they started early. I’m sorry your establishment was so poor with planning that they apologize for children not listening instead of being unprepared for such [an] event.”

PEZ tried its best to make sure that everyone who attended left the Connecticut event with some type of Easter token by passing out candy, eggs, and coupons at the front entrance as people were leaving.

PEZ cancels Easter egg hunt after parents storm field: PEZ Candy abruptly canceled its third annual Easter egg hunt… https://t.co/lkFXLUl8Qf

— Snapmaster Patriot News (@SnapmasterNFT) March 28, 2016

Nicole Simmons, an Ansonia resident who brought her six-year-old daughter to the event arrived at the time that was scheduled for her daughter’s age group to go onto one of the fields for the hunt. She stated that even though they had attended a few times before that she had never seen a crowd like the one that was present on that day. She described them as being “almost like a swarm covering the field” and that they had “no [regard] that there were other people, children and cars around them.” She said that she was told by a PEZ employee that by the time that they arrived that the entire event was actually over, even though it had been officially scheduled to take place between 9 a.m. and noon.

The company continued to say in its official statement that, due to the actions of a few, their good intent for the day deteriorated into a mess. They offered a sincere apology to everyone in attendance and tried to assure the public that the event was in no way intended to cause frustration or to make people angry.

This is the third year that PEZ has sponsored the Annual Easter Egg Hunt, originally meant to be a child-focused affair.

No arrests were reported.

[Photo by Ross D. Franklin/AP Images]