1,500 Crash Birthday Party After Facebook Slip Up

German teenager accidently invites entire Internet to her sweet sixteen.

A teenage girl in Germany went into hiding after she forgot to set her Facebook birthday invitation to private and accidentally invited the entire Internet.
 
The 16-year-old girl, identified only as Thessa in news reports, posted a birthday invitation to Facebook that was viewable by anyone with an Internet connection. After 15,000 people confirmed they were coming, Thessa's parents canceled the party. They also notified police and hired private security to guard their home.
 
But that wasn't enough to stop 1,500 people from showing up and having a good time. About 100 police were dispatched to control the crowd, who chanted "Thessa, celebrating a birthday is not a crime" and held up signs reading "Where is Thessa?"
 
(For the record, she was celebrating her birthday with her grandparents at "an undisclosed location," according to the Associated Press.)
 
When the smoke cleared ­– seriously: firefighters extinguished two small fires – police spokesman Mirko Streiber declared the party "a hit."

Perhaps you should think twice before inviting Streiber to your next get-together, if his idea of a hit includes 11 detained party-goers, one injured police officer, and "dozens of girls wearing flip-flops cut[ting] their feet on broken glass."
 
As the New York Daily News points out, Thessa isn't the first teen to have a party spin out of control after a Facebook slip-up. In 2010, more than 21,000 people confirmed they were attending a 14-year-old British girl's birthday. Some of the confirmed attendees included fake accounts for Justin Bieber and Stephen Hawking.
 
This would have never happened if she'd made the same mistake on Myspace.

 

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/06/06/facebook_birthday_party_1_500_show_up_after_german_teenager_acci.html