From murder to kidnapping, helicopter crashes to deadly fires, here are 10 times the county
fair went horribly wrong!
10.
Ride Accident Do you like going to the county fair?
Do you ever wonder if carnival rides are safe??
You’re not alone!!
In Sarasota Florida this past January, a woman was at the fair with her nephew and they decided
to go on a ride called the Ring of Fire, a gravity disk that spins you in a circle.
Of course she thought everything was perfectly safe, they go through inspections, right??
Right??
Well, she fell right out of her seat during the ride and hit the plexiglass roof.
She started screaming but she was pinned between the roof and the seat until someone down below
got the attendants attention saying it looked like someone needed help!!
The woman says she feels lucky she didn’t die and the Park Manager said “We take the
safety of our guests very seriously,” said Danny Alphonso, Park Manager.
“The ride was inspected by a NARSO certified inspector as well as the state, and there
has been no deficiencies found with that ride.”
Right now they agree to disagree with the women saying that she doesn’t feel like
the carnival cares about what happened to her at all, just about losing park attendance.
She’s lucky nothing worse happened because have I got some stories for you!!!!
9: Funnel Cakes & Murder Every year, tens of thousands of people attend
the Iowa State Fair.
It's one of the grandest traditions in the state.
People stand in lines, they eat corn dogs, they check out the boars, and they do other
state fair stuff.
But 20 years ago, there was a nightmare at the Iowa State Fair that will never be forgotten,
and it involved funnel cakes and cold-blooded murder.
The incident began with Bobie and Marilyn Blewer, a couple who ran a funnel cake stand.
It was August 12, 1996 when they were discovered bound and gagged, murdered on the floor of
the family motorhome.
The couple began selling funnel cakes in the 1970s.
They traveled to different fairs each summer to bring joy and cheer wherever they possibly
could with their delicious treats.
But that August things were different.
The kids, Beau and Jada, left the family motorhome early in the morning to serve funnel cakes
at the fair.
But by midday, Bobie and Marilyn were nowhere to be seen.
So, Beau went back to see what was going on.
He found his father covered in duct tape with a bullet hole in the back of his head and
his mother with bullet holes through her chest and a single shot in the center of her forehead.
The safe inside the motorhome was open and the cash was missing.
It soon became obvious what happened.
A man named Jerimy Sneed, a felon who had been working in the funnel cake stand, was
missing along with Beau’s truck.
For 19 days Sneed tried to outrun the law, blowing all the stolen cash on drugs and prostitutes
while driving from New York to Seattle, then down to Miami.
Finally, he was busted on August 31, 1996, and taken to jail for murder.
8: Brutal Assault Two teens have been charged by the Frederick
County Sheriff's Office in connection to a brutal and unprovoked attack that happened
at the Great Frederick Fair.
It's no secret that teenagers can be mean and unfairly violent, especially at a summer
fair when there's alcohol involved.
The victim in this situation was discovered unconscious at the midway area of the fairgrounds
just before 6:00 PM.
According to eyewitnesses, he had been minding his own business.
He was identified as Marvin Weed, 59 years old from Maryland.
He had to be airlifted to the trauma center in Baltimore where he later died from his
injuries.
But what in the world happened to this poor old man?
Law enforcement says two teens, 15 and 16, had been playing what they refer to as the
“knockout game.”
This is basically when teenagers run around trying to knock out strangers for fun.
But the fun stopped pretty quickly after authorities picked the two youngsters up and charged them
with second-degree assault, with prosecutors thinking about adding manslaughter or even
murder to the charges since the victim died from his injuries.
And this is just the kind of thing you need to worry about when visiting your local fair.
Forget the Ferris wheel falling over – be on the lookout for wild teenagers!
7: Thrill Ride Malfunction At the Ohio State Fair, one person died and
seven were injured when a thrill ride malfunctioned.
The atrocity happened when a ride called the Fire Ball, described by the company that provides
the rides for the fair as being an aggressive thrill ride, crashed unexpectedly and a piece
of the ride flew off, resulting in the riders being tossed violently to the ground.
And if you ask me, that is about as aggressive of a thrill ride as most people are willing
to handle.
Naturally, the Ohio State Fair released a sentimental statement to the families involved,
though that's probably not any consolation to the unfortunate fella who was killed.
After the incident, the director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture said that there
would be a full review of every ride at the fair.
Supposedly there had been a full review of the ride before it ever got started, and the
ride was actually inspected several times before the fair ever opened.
Nobody can understand why the incident occurred.
It could have just been a freak accident that no one could have possibly predicted, making
you wonder just how safe these rides really are.
Have you ever been on a ride that experienced mechanical issues?
What were your first thoughts?
Let me know in the comments below and if you’re liking this video be sure to hit the thumbs
up and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already!
:)
6: Helicopter Crash In Pennsylvania, it wasn't a ride that malfunctioned,
it was a helicopter!
The helicopter didn’t actually kill anybody, but at 8:00 PM Saturday evening, it did crash
into a parking lot at a county fair.
The helicopter itself was used for taking people on various tours from the fair itself.
It was an Enstrom F28F sightseeing helicopter that somehow missed its landing on the helipad
and crashed sideways into the parking lot.
The only people who were injured were the three on board, the pilot and two passengers.
Luckily, nobody on the ground happened to be standing there at the time, otherwise they
probably would have been squashed!
The helicopter was destroyed beyond repair.
Some of the cars near it had gotten pretty smashed up, probably from the spinning rotors
as the helicopter beefed it into the ground.
There was no cause given for the accident, though the FAA was investigating.
As for the three injured, they did not suffer life-threatening injuries and were all OK.
5: The 1839 World’s Fair The World’s Fair was supposed to be one
of the most spectacular events on Earth, especially before the time of the internet and television!!
This is where you would come to learn all about the advancements in technology and innovations
made by countries from all over the world!
Also known as the Universal Expo they are held every few years in different countries
to share our common humanity and they are supposed to be fun!!
BUT the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition also known as the Chicago World's Fair went
horribly wrong.
It was the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World and
the main attraction was an enormous pool representing the ocean and exploration.
It was a huge opportunity for Chicago to show off in front of the world!
On July 10th, 16 people died in a blazing inferno during the World’s Columbian Exposition.
12 of the deceased were firefighters trying to put the blaze out.
Thousands of people at the fair watched in horror as the building went up in flames and
fireman after fireman was swallowed by the flames.
It was only a small fire that started at first in the smokestack at the cold storage building.
This is where all the food for the fair was refrigerated.
The fire was 191 feet (58m) up, which meant firefighters had to climb the tower to put
the fire out.
But as they were working on the small fire, a larger blaze erupted 70 feet(21m) below
them.
The building was literally burning down around them and the firefighters had no escape.
Imagine being stuck 191 feet (58m) up a tower with no escape while below you is the heart
of a raging fire.
This is what happened to the firefighters.
By the end of the disaster, 12 firefighters had fallen haphazardly into the flames and
were killed.
Only a few made it out.
It was, at the time, the worst fire disaster in Chicago history.
4: Balloon Game Bust Tulsa County deputies showed up to the Tulsa
State Fair to arrest the vendor of the balloon game after some very strange allegations.
As it turned out, this guy was altering the rules of the game in such a way that he was
just kind of handing out stuffed animals willy-nilly.
Here's what happened.
An undercover officer approached Jon Morton who was running the balloon game.
The rules were clearly stated on a sign near the game.
It was five darts for $3 or seven darts for $10, even though that doesn't make any sense.
But aside from the absolutely atrocious math and the horrible deal of 2 extra darts for
over double what you paid for the original 5 darts, these were the rules.
The undercover officer then asked the guy outright how much money it would cost to win
a certain stuffed doll.
Morton told him it would cost about 80 bucks, and that was if he played the game well.
But the undercover cop was adamant that he wanted to win the doll.
So, Morton told him to put down $60.00 and that he would give him the doll if he popped
any balloon with a single dart.
The deputy refused, and so the guy put 20 darts on the table and said that for $60.00
he would give him the doll no matter what and no matter how many darts it took to do
it.
If you're wondering why this is so important, it's because the guy was changing the rules
as he saw fit to make more money, which violates the Carnival Fraud Act.
By altering the rules and allowing a bounty to be put on a prize, the game becomes unfair.
After the undercover officer popped a balloon and Morton handed over the prize, he was swiftly
arrested.
3: Children’s Ride Mayhem At the Puyallup Spring Fair, on a Friday evening,
a children's ride fell over!
According to a spokeswoman from the fair, it was all because of the heavy rainfall.
The rain had made the ground wet, and so the amusement ride tipped over.
And here's the scary part.
16 riders were on the ride when it happened.
14 of them were children and 2 of them were adults.
6 needed to be taken to hospitals, though all were released with only minor injuries.
What ride was this?
It was the Lolli Swing, perhaps the most innocent ride at the entire fair!
Nobody would believe that such a silly children's ride could be the cause of so much distress.
And yet this just goes to show that nobody is safe – not even on the kiddie rides!
Naturally, the ride was not used again after the horrible incident.
Everyone was very lucky not to be injured, but maybe the fair should be a little more
careful next time not to put children's rides in what basically became a swamp after it
rained.
2: Disturbing Plans In Michigan, police have arrested four people
after accusing them of plotting to kidnap somebody's child from a county fair.
The details of their plot are absolutely sickening.
According to the Michigan State Police, the four suspects had planned to locate a random
child at the fair before assaulting them in the worst way possible and then burning them
alive!
I should say right now that the plot never materialized, and no child was actually harmed.
However, all four of them were charged in the conspiracy to commit the act, which was
discovered thanks to undercover police officers.
They found out about the planned crime from an insider tip.
A witness happened to overhear the suspects talking about a plan to abduct a child.
They had the dates for different fairs and were deciding which events were more likely
to have a lot of children.
Even more disgusting is that one of the suspects, a girl of only 19 years old at the time, was
charged with the task of luring the child away.
This girl had already gotten in trouble before for abusing a 1-year-old kid whom she had
babysat with an accomplice.
The suspects even had a plan to take them to a rental cabin, where they would torture
the child before burning them in a barrel while still alive.
Luckily, these people are now behind bars and hopefully they stay there for the rest
of eternity.
1: The Moonraker Eight people were taken to the hospital after
a horrifying incident on the Moonraker ride at the Delta Fair in Memphis.
This ride is one of the most notorious for thrill seekers at the local fair.
It's a pretty simple attraction.
The ride spins on an axis, tilts up and down a bit, and basically just makes everyone really
nauseous.
According to the fair’s safety director, the internal computer detected a problem and
began a safety shutdown.
But when the ride began to shut down, the operator didn't know what was happening.
He panicked and hit the manual override button, releasing the safety restraints before the
ride could stop.
This was the wrong move.
14 people were thrown violently from the ride and injured.
Most complained about soreness and were treated at the scene, but some of them had to go to
the hospital.
This included the operator of the ride who claimed to be emotionally damaged by the accident.
Not sure what the hospital could have done for him, but the ride was shut down afterward,
waiting to be inspected.
Thanks for watching!
What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you at the county fair?
Let me know in the comments and be sure to hit subscribe and check back again for another
crazy video!
Bye! :)