Poorly organized toy distribution causes chaos and leaves children without toys in Detroit.
Detroit (WJBK) - Chaos and Confusion as families in need are turned away from a Christmas toy distribution. The gifts were provided by Toys for Tots and a charity was supposed to give them out.
Hundreds of people lined up outside the Detroit Town Center Saturday ready to receive the toys they signed up for months in advance. Waiting for hours tempers started to flare, fights broke out and the cops came to ask everyone to leave.
Families were sent emails told to pick up their toys but people are saying the event was "poorly organized."
Event organizer John Cromer, not providing much information as to why the event didn't go as planned.
"I would say there are a lot of families in Detroit that need help at Christmas time and this is just a reflection of that," Cromer said.
Police stormed the building asking people to leave, one woman ended up in handcuffs and being put in the back of a cop car.
Almost all the families left empty handed after waiting for seven hours. If that wasn't enough, people’s cars were also starting to be towed.
Toys for tots provided the toys for the events but its spokesperson from the Marines says they had anything to do with the planning of this event. Statement below from the Marines.
"As head coordinator of Toys for Tots Detroit, it was my sole duty to ensure that each non-profit organization that requested toys was provided the amount of toys for the number of children which they needed.
Organizations provide the number / gender of children and our campaign fills that request. Toys for tots does not participate in the toy distribution of these organizations.
Last year Toy for Tots serviced over 18M toys to over 7M children. With over 800 campaigns across the US. We would like to convey our sincerest condolences to the families affected, and will be taking the necessary steps to ensure that a problem of this nature does not happen again."