Dunedin's Easter egg drop may have seemed like a great idea on paper, but the results of the massive egg hunt now have the city issuing an apology.
The plan was to have 10,000 candy-filled eggs dropped from two helicopters over a field at Highlander Park. But high winds prevented the helicopters from evenly distributing the eggs, and the expected 1,000 children was actually 7,500.
In the rush to grab eggs, there were a few minor injuries and a lot of children who came up empty-handed. Firefighters and sheriff's deputies had to help a few lost children find their parents in the crowd.
City officials said they wanted to separate the crowd into different age groups, but there was just too many children.
There also were complaints about the lack of enough food vendors and other games at the event.
In response, the city issued an apology via its Facebook page and a letter to the editor in the Tampa Bay Times:
"The City of Dunedin extends its sincere apologies to anyone who attended the egg drop (Saturday) and was disappointed. We were overwhelmed by the turnout. This was a first event for us of this type and we are open to suggestions on how to better improve for next year," the apology read.
According to the Times, a similar incident happened in 1996 in Largo when a nighttime egg hunt crowd of 3,000 grew to 8,000 and resulted in several injuries.