A lengthy photobooth session led to a major altercation at a Massachusetts Chuck E. Cheese’s this past Sunday, the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise reports. Three girls, all cousins, aged 21, 18, and 14, were arrested and charged with “assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot).”
Apparently, the girls sat in the photobooth taking photos for at least half an hour while a family waited outside to use the booth. When the girls finally relented and let Eduarda Silveira, her husband, and their six-month daughter in to use the booth, the girls continued to insult and abuse the family. The abuse escalated into a fight in which “one teen allegedly began pulling Silveira’s hair, punching her, and eventually knocked her to the ground and kicked her.”
We love photobooths, but come on, people, they’re not worth fighting over. Especially when the fighting involves punching, hair-pulling, and assault with a shod foot.
This is not the first time a photobooth has been in the middle of an incident involving assault and Massachusetts law enforcement officers, though. A few years ago (and if anybody knows when, I’d appreciate the info), photobooth artist Paul Yates was assaulted and detained by rent-a-cop security personnel at the BostonBowl photobooth as he was taking photos, some of which happened to involve no clothing. The Boston Phoenix’s story on the incident is worth a read.
UPDATE, Thursday, April 28, 2005: According to a report in today’s Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, the photobooth was a digital “Photo Sketch” model.