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One I remember was years ago when I attended Games Day Chicago at the Rosemont Convention Center, Games day was the upstairs event and downstairs was some type of Sports Membeillia convention. I had seen everything I wanted and spent all the money plus I was dead tired, so I decided to skip the Golden Deamon and the closing events and head back early to the airport which was a short walk and subway ride back. I left the convention but before I could make it to the escalator, I could see the convention drop-off driveway was full of security cars and crowds of people were everywhere on the lower levels. Security stopped me at the bottom of the escalator and I told him I was leaving and he directed me a long way around the crowd and into the street. I had no idea what was going on but made it out safely. As I was walking to the subway station, a guy rushed past me carrying sports stuff, yelling on his phone, "I know I'm late, but O. J. Simpson showed up to the convention unannounced and they shut down the convention". I don't know if they were trying to get him out or what was happening, I just know it was a giant mess of people everywhere. This was one of his first public appearances that I knew of and I am sure the mess was dispersed before Games Day let out offically. But it was a crazy mess when I tried to leave early.

So what is others, Hobby's "what the heck is going on here" moment?

Weird events? Would that count having to play 2 1st round games in a tourney against your younger brother AND your best friend before being robbed in the semifinals by someone abusing a provable rule while running the TO's personal army? Because that happened.

Not a weird event per se, but someone showing up with a Marine army that was bisected half Royal Purple, half Benghal Tiger stripes, and gold helmets. That one, and the dude who showed up with a Marine army painted head to toe in Testors' gold enamel. It was literally blinding.

Well there was that time I may have seen Octarine

Myself and a few others was off to a (i think) Star Wars CCG (the Decipher one) tourny, we stopped to pick up the last player and then there was a problem with the car starting, said car owner then said "oh I can fix this, que a very bright flash, some swearing and the smell of toasty flesh, car started mind

My strange events:

Used to play a lot in college. A new Chaos player threw us for a loop because he didn't quite fit our nerd stereotype. He was an African American Basketball player. He was super tall, and came strait from playing basketball to game night still wearing his practice outfit which was loose ball shorts (no underwear by his own personal choice). He was just the right height that he'd sometimes lean over the table and sweep his models own backline around with his tallywacker. Trying hard not to laugh.

Back in the the summer of 2005 I had just gotten married and we moved into a tiny cinderblock apartment. The air conditioning went out, we were in a heatwave, and there was only ONE window that can open. Sweating profusely, I decided I was not going to waste my only day off work, so I got a jug of ice water, stripped down to my tighty-whitey undies and started assembling a metal Bloodthirster while sitting on the floor. Holding two parts together with one hand I reached over for my supersized bottle of superglue. I bit the cap, screwed the lid off, and squeezed. I didn't realize the entire top of the bottle had come off. About two fluid ounces of superglue were now on the model, and in my lap. I had model glued to my hands, underwear glued to my thighs, undewear glued to the carpet, and my twig and berries in the mix too. Spent the rest of the day carefully applying acetone.

Getting spoken to by our Federal police because a fax of a foreign consulate floor plan was sent to me at work ...


It was a prop for a cyberpunk rpg, and it was left out of a particular book (which said to refer to it) by accident. I phoned up the rpg company and they offered to fax it to me (so I got them to send it to me at work, where they had a fax. It was the 90s). I told one of the girls in the office about it (and a rough time window of when it would happen).

I didn't tell all of them.
This was during the "OMG terrorists are everywhere... If you see something, say something ... xenophobic paranoia phase".
One of them saw "Colombian consulate" and drew the wrong conclusion, calling the "informant" line and I got to speak to the po-po as a result.

I had to explain that there was nothing dodgy about it. It was a prop for an rpg ... what? Like a rocket propelled grenade ? No, role-playing game. Like D&D, but more spy-like. That the floorplan was for a building in a city that did not exist in the real world. That the originating number was a games company in San Francisco (it had their info in the fax header and footers) and that Lisa from that company could verify this.

They let me go after a couple of hours of verifying info - and let me keep the floorplan.

I forgot that we had a thermal fax machine ... and also forgot to get the fax lasercopied ... so within 3 months, it had faded to invisibility anyway.

Had a customer poop himself in-store. And another wet himself.

Remember folks. GW staff aren’t trained or registered child minders. All are welcome, but if your kid has special needs, you too are needed on hand.

Got some mail asking me to come to the local customs office to get a package. I was expecting some plastic models from the US, so I assumed it was that. I still had to pay import tax on it, but wondered a bit why they made such a fuss. Usually the mail dude just comes by with a receipt and you give him the money. Or you have to get it at the post office and pay there.

Anyway, I drove to the customs office, drew a number, was called up and got to the desk of a customs clerk, with a policeman at his side. They were friendly but firm and asked if I had any idea what that package might be, so I told them I expect a model kit for a wheeled tank from the US. Something like *gesticulating* this size out of resin? Both shared a look and the situation eased immediatly. Turns out the plastic the company used had the same density etc. as pressed cocain and the shape looked pretty similar (basically two blocks, turret and hull). I had to open it under the supervision of the policedude, we looked a bit through it, it was obviously a plastic model and I had the receipt, so everything went fine.
Still a bit of a strange situation.

 Pyroalchi wrote:
Got some mail asking me to come to the local customs office to get a package. I was expecting some plastic models from the US, so I assumed it was that. I still had to pay import tax on it, but wondered a bit why they made such a fuss. Usually the mail dude just comes by with a receipt and you give him the money. Or you have to get it at the post office and pay there.

Anyway, I drove to the customs office, drew a number, was called up and got to the desk of a customs clerk, with a policeman at his side. They were friendly but firm and asked if I had any idea what that package might be, so I told them I expect a model kit for a wheeled tank from the US. Something like *gesticulating* this size out of resin? Both shared a look and the situation eased immediatly. Turns out the plastic the company used had the same density etc. as pressed cocain and the shape looked pretty similar (basically two blocks, turret and hull). I had to open it under the supervision of the policedude, we looked a bit through it, it was obviously a plastic model and I had the receipt, so everything went fine.
Still a bit of a strange situation.

If it was FW, showing them the price would’ve confirmed it was showbiz sherbert!

Back when I still gamed attended a video game market which was held at a sports stadium close to where I live, I went there to buy some old consoles like the supernes and its predecessor the nes, but also action figures which I always collected as a kid too and still had a soft spot for as much as looking for elusive rare titles (games) and ofcourse bradygames guides..

So I was there about 2 hours in having a blast and all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and we all were told to form a line and calmly walk to the exit..
(back then I still had a crowd mind so I 'did as I was told' lol..) my younger brother was also there and told me afterward he was on the toilet when it happened so he just continued to do his thing there :')

Anyway, turns out no emergency at all, the fire alarm had simply been smashed and someone had stolen a big bag of camera equipment from the media who was also on location..

Never been near such a heist before (and never after) and that's the weirdest hobby event for me to post.

Mad Doc Grotsnik, my FLGS also had a serious problem with poop bandits. Unfortunately, that seems to be an affliction all retail stores must face.

Helverine, are you saying that now you would not exit a building when the fire alarm goes off?

 chromedog wrote:
... so within 3 months, it had faded to invisibility anyway.

How appropriate, given the genre!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Helverine, are you saying that now you would not exit a building when the fire alarm goes off?

He won't be a part of your system!

Oh man, that song takes me back…

To my son’s toddlerhood, when it was his unofficial theme song.

To the FLGS more times than I’d like.

To every game of Monopoly.

Back in the mid-90s, when GenCon was held in Milwaukee WI, my buddy got us lost driving through Chicago.
Not on the web of highways that run through it (wich we should 've been on for the whole Chicago leg of the trip) mind you, but down in the actual streets.... of wich neither of us were familiar with.
It was a simple plan. I drove the 1st 1/2 of the trip, he was supposed to drive the 2nd 1/2. Stay on x route, then take exit # whatever to route y & drive straight North. You will exit Chicago/IL, enter Wisconsin, & essentially drive straight to Milwaukee.
So I was asleep in the passenger seat. To this day I still don't know what possessed him to turn off the highway.
He wakes me up in a random parking lot to ask me if we have a Chicago map (the answer of course was yes as this was well before GPS)

We have a brief argument that ends with me:
A) determining the St. Names of the nearest intersection,
B) taking the keys & simply driving us out of Chicago & back on route as if I lived there.
WITHOUT ever consulting the map.
I just knew which streets I should take.
[u]By name.[i]

It was the oddest thing.

I'd never lived in Chicago.
My only prior experience with Chicago at that point was driving through it on the freeway route we should've stayed on twice before. I'd never seen actual Chicago streets. (Well, I guess maybe a few that get used in movies/TV shows - but we weren't on any of those.... and I knew the streets we were on by name & where they went.)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Pyroalchi wrote:
Got some mail asking me to come to the local customs office to get a package. I was expecting some plastic models from the US, so I assumed it was that. I still had to pay import tax on it, but wondered a bit why they made such a fuss. Usually the mail dude just comes by with a receipt and you give him the money. Or you have to get it at the post office and pay there.

Anyway, I drove to the customs office, drew a number, was called up and got to the desk of a customs clerk, with a policeman at his side. They were friendly but firm and asked if I had any idea what that package might be, so I told them I expect a model kit for a wheeled tank from the US. Something like *gesticulating* this size out of resin? Both shared a look and the situation eased immediatly. Turns out the plastic the company used had the same density etc. as pressed cocain and the shape looked pretty similar (basically two blocks, turret and hull). I had to open it under the supervision of the policedude, we looked a bit through it, it was obviously a plastic model and I had the receipt, so everything went fine.
Still a bit of a strange situation.

If it was FW, showing them the price would’ve confirmed it was showbiz sherbert!

Not an expert, but I suspect cocaine is cheaper than FW…