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Burbank PD has their eye on the 'Krispy Kreme Tuesdays' car enthusiast meetup
File: A patron walks into a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop May 17, 2004 in Miami, Florida.
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Burbank officers are bracing for a possible "flash-mob" car enthusiast meetup that has caused havoc in the area in the past.
The last time one of these events — dubbed Krispy Kreme Tuesdays — was held, officers issued 50 citations and arrested three attendees.
"They invite enthusiasts to join them and enjoy their cars and get together," Sergent Claudio Losacco with the Burbank Police Department said. "The issue is that, in the past, so many people have shown up to this event — which is not affiliated with Krispy Kreme itself, by the way — they show up, and they have literally thousands of people, and hundreds of vehicles that overtake the entire Empire Center."
The meetups have caused chaos at the mall, snarling traffic at its sizable parking lot and surrounding roads, "to the point where there's no order in the comings and goings and in the setup," Losacco said. "It ends up being a kind of a situation where it becomes unsafe."
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Online, organizers say that Tuesday's event would be their last, at least for a while:
"Due to the sad situation of how the general black and white car treat us KKT has decided to give us a meet ONE LAST TIME until the long hiatus and the power will be passed onto Octane Festival to provide a safe, harassment free zone," they wrote on a Facebook event page. "Why ?!??? you ask... Because we can not continue to keep running, We must claim a spot for all of us to have a day or even two days for us to gather. Lets end it with a bang. Krispy Kreme Tuesdays is no longer just Burbank ITS SO-CAL."
In 2013, the event surprised police, swamped traffic in the area and kept businesses from operating and local residents from getting to their homes, Losacco said.
"By and large, most of the individuals are respectful and they aren't doing things that are illegal," Losacco said. "However, when you have such a large group of people that come together, there is going to be an element — at least in the last experience that we had — that were doing things that were illegal, such as driving in an unsafe manner, drinking, smoking marijuana. Their vehicles are oftentimes highly modified, and in some cases, illegal."
Police plan to have officers ready to deploy if Tuesday's event materializes in the Burbank area, Losacco said.
Organizers on Facebook said they'd announce the location of the meetup 90 minutes before the event, which they said would take place around 9:15 p.m.
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