See what happens when you invite Snooki and The Gang to your place of buisness? Police in Montclair, New Jersey say fans of MTV’s controversial reality series Jersey Shore nearly caused a riot during a promotional event at a local nightclub on Friday night, forcing the closure of a thoroughfare and leading to the arrests of four people.
Dick Grabowsky, who owns the 501 Lounge, told The Newark Star-Ledger that things quickly spiraled out of control when almost 2,000 fans showed up for an advertised meet and greet with the cast of the hit reality show. The intimate nightspot has a capacity of just 800.
Montclair Police Chief David Sabagh says fights broke out among the crowds who gathered.
“They had crowds much larger than they could control,” Sabagh told The Star-Ledger. “They had 600 upstairs, 200 to 300 downstairs and 400 outside. … There were fights inside and fights outside.”
Four people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and drunk driving. The event closed a stretch of the main business strip outside the club for two hours.
Jersey Shore, which chronicles the escapades of eight 20-somethings sharing a summer house in the resort town of Seaside Heights, wrapped its first season last week as one of MTV’s biggest hits of the new year.