A Cashtomato.com giveaway in Union Square last Friday quickly turned from free money event to free-for-all when a New York City crowd got beyond restless.
Three event organizers dressed as tomatoes were giving out bags and boxes of tomatoes with up to $29 in each of them when they were reportedly jumped by the Leap Day crowd. The trio dropped their tomatoes and ran across Union Square Park, leaving the crowd to scramble for a trove of $4,000 attached to tomatoes and balloons and in envelopes, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
A YouTube video revealed a mushy aftermath, with New York City Police present to break up the scheduled 2:29 p.m. publicity stunt that turned into a street corner dust-up.
Cashtomato.com, a video sharing site, abandoned plans to distribute several thousand dollars more around the city.
“It just got totally out of control there, so it never happened,” said Jason Buzi, a Cashtomato.com spokesman.
He said the experience would make Cashtomato.com more careful at future giveaway events.
One person reportedly suffered a leg injury after being stepped on by the crowd and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. One promotion ambush artist was seen running away with a sack of cash envelopes.
Cashtomato.com was seeking to plug its start-up video sharing site. It generated the crowd through blogs and a posting on Craigslist, according to Buzi.
The San Francisco-based company has staged similar events in London and San Franciso, apparently without incident.
Attempts to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful.
The supposed source of the loot is the start-up’s anonymous “millionaire founder,” who is otherwise described in Cashtomato.com press releases as a “wealthy and eccentric real estate investor.”
Late last month, Cashtomato.com offered to give each registered user to its site a cash prize, through March 21, the corporate benefactor’s birthday.
It currently estimates its registered users at 1,100.
