2-Ton Target Ball Comes Loose Unleashing Holy Hell In Parking Lot

It caused $3,500 in damages

All this time, you probably thought the worst thing that could happen at Target was overspending on cute throw pillows and candles. Boy, were you wrong.

All this time, a real menace has been staring us in the face. A big, red, round menace. And we don’t mean that hypnotizing bulls-eye that makes us part with all our cash.

In a scene that’s more “Indiana Jones” than “Mom in Yoga Pants Hauling $237 Worth of Shit She Doesn’t Need to Her Minivan,” one of those giant, red balls that sit at the entrance of most Target stores dislodged after being hit by a truck.

The 2-ton ball then rolled into traffic with the entire incident captured by parking lot surveillance cameras.

According to ABC7, the runaway ball caused damages in excess of $3,500 at the Paramus, New Jersey location. Eileen Grady recounts, “All of sudden I hear this crash and a really loud noise.” That really loud noise would be a red, man-made boulder smacking into the side of her Nissan Rogue. Grady says the impact also caused a nail to shoot out of the ball and strike one of her rear tires.

The crisis was put to an end by a brave Samaritan and his dog, with the man jumping out of his car to put a stop to the rolling menace. The video shows him, along with two other men, rolling the monster back to where it came from, eventually balancing it outside the store’s entrance.

An employee drops a traffic cone near it (because that’ll stop a 2-ton ball from rolling back into traffic) and walks off, only to return seconds later, probably sensing the impending lawsuit if the beast got away again. He leaves one more time to stop a rolling cart and in those 30 seconds, a child managed to climb on top of the unsecured ball.

Because of course, in a matter of seconds a child climbed on top. Duh.

Grady is fighting Target to get the damage to her car paid for, and Target is fighting back. A claim she filed with the retail giant was denied, and police at the scene couldn’t make out the truck’s plate number that hit the ball in the first place. Grady says after seeing the video, she thinks it’s possible the truck driver didn’t even realize they’d knocked the ball loose. Her next stop is taking Target to small claims court in hopes that they’ll cover the costs, but the video showing the truck hitting the ball makes it pretty clear who’s to blame.

Now, quick show of hands — who here has let their kids climb all over these things at some point? For my children, it’s the first stop at the carnival known as a Target trip. They briefly manhandle the ball. We walk in and buy popcorn. Mommy gets a coffee. Then, we ride. Them’s the rules.

However, now that I’m aware of the potential for these boulders to come loose and unleash holy hell on a parking lot, it might be time to put an end to our little ritual. If I have to shell out $3,500 to fix some poor person’s car, that’s $3,500 less I’ll have to spend on throw pillows and candles.

And that’s a risk I’m not willing to take.