Shopping for gifts during the holiday season is undoubtedly one of the most hectic and stressful things a person has to go through in the entire year. However, the experience of shopping just after the holidays can possibly even rival this more often than not, negative experience.
In the tradition widely known as "boxing day," shoppers took to their local malls in order to find the best deals possible on the things they perhaps missed out on during Christmas. Although lots of security personnel were hired to disperse unruly crowds, lots of these mobs still got the upper hand, Tech Times reported. This forced a number of malls to close earlier than expected.
In a shopping center in Aurora, Colorado, a fight broke out in a food court, which saw upwards of 100 people get involved. Security had to call for backup and managed to break up the fight, but not until more brawls broke out in places such as the mall's cinema and parking lot.
The same type of incident occurred in the Fox Valley Mall at Aurora, Illinois. There were around 1,000 spectators to the various brawls that broke out in the mall's food court. In the end, there were a total of 75 security personnel deployed to evacuate the mall, while seven juveniles were arrested because of their respective parts in the incident.
One of the more severe incidents happened in The Mills located in Jersey Gardens, New Jersey. Heavily armored security had to be deployed, as things turned possibly for the worse at around 5 P.M. on Boxing Day. Around 48,000 people had to flee for their lives after a loud gunshot noise was heard and a person shouted, "shots fired."
A report from the New Jersey police force stated that the "gunshot" noise that was heard was merely a chair being thrown against a hard surface causing a bang, according to the Daily Mail. There were eight people who got injured during the incident, which caused a major stampede. No one was arrested; however, and the mall will once again open its doors to the public come Tuesday.
Watch what unfolded during Boxing Day 2016 below: