Violence within your haunt??

[Frightfactory UK]

Hi,

Have any of you experience in the past voilence aimed towards your actors from people, or people that just want to go in and screw about, ie wreck some props or anything like that?

Im a little concerned about this in the UK to a level where im considering hiring doormen.

Any info would be appreciated!

Regards

Mark

[Barry]

Yes, we have and I would think that all haunts have. Usually it is from people who have been drinking liquid courage. We keep our problems to a minimum with a heave police presence and by trying to intercept potential problem people in the queue line and letting them know thye are being watched. This seems to reduce our "problem children".

[Jim Warfield]

Some of the bad deportment seen within a haunted house is inspired by the haunt experience itself but the worst of it does come from booze-a-holics.
If you have an in-their-face, aggressive type of a show then some customers will respond "in-kind".
Some people merely are reactive to being startled, swinging fists or even kicking, only to apologise , sometimes profusely, almost immeadiately.
Some people pretend to be reactive and are just looking for someone to be their punching bag. Usually these people are found always punching women haunters or small children (if you allow them to work for you, a good reason not to)
I always tell my helpers to never get within arm's length of anyone they are scaring AND be prepared to quickly step backward if they become aggressive. If they continue meanacing my helper I instruct them to shine their flashlight in the person's face, then retreat to safety and call for help.
Rubber masks with small mis-alinded eyeholes set someone up to get punched .

[Jast223]

Yes I actually was a victim of violance. I was wearing a full face clown prostetic (sorry for the spelling) attached with spirit gum. Guy walked up and pulled off the face piece (ouch) :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: and also pulled off my jesters hat. Needless to say that pissed me off. I ended up having to push the guy away from me in order to get away and to call security. Im pretty sure that if I had not done that that I would of most likely would of gotten hurt.


Ask Jason for the picture of me wearing the mask.
Or Jason can you post with the pic???

[Frightfactory UK]

Yeah i figured this happened.

May have to get some doormen in masks lol.

To be honest it bloody annoys me, its making my insurance costs rocket at the moment!

Oh well, what doesnt kill you makes you stronger eh!


Cheers

[Jim Warfield]

Here is a partial answer to what might be your next logical question.
"How Do you Cut Down The Amount Of B.S. In Your Haunt?"
(Violence, vandalism)
Have surveilence cameras.
Let your customers know that you have them, be obvious about it.
Hire professional Policemen who know how to legally handle troublemakers.
Keep the drunks out.
Don't get greedy, don't cram way too many customers into your place during prime time. This ruins any "show" that you may have had for them, makes them feel "Ripped Off", which inspires vandalism inside your haunt("Payback" mentality)
The cramming of too many bodies through the door also makes it harder or impossible to actually know who the troublemaker might be, or might have been.
People in smaller groups always behave much better, so avoid creating the mob-mentality, as in "Lynch Mob"!
I stated this is all just a partial answer because sometimes in some situations you can have everything right and still things go wrong.
People can be very unpredictable. It can just be something within their nature, you know.

[frightking]

We have had issues also at our Spokane haunt, however seem to be able to keep most of it under control with a moderate security staff. If an actor is touched or we notice someone messing with props, they are immediately escorted out the exit. The worst thing we have expierienced is someone pulling a gun in the qeue line the cops showed up within minutes. I believe the best way to handle this is by training your security staff or hiring off duty coppers.

[Ken Spriggs]

Doormen

Doormen????

We hire fully armed off duty cops!

Violence in a haunt.....sure mix booze and the dark and you get an instant Ahole (not me the customers).

On some nights we have 7-8 cops EVERYWHERE

[SomeThingInTheIce]

All I have is a home haunt, it's in its second year and we are hiring one off duty sheriff. I don't need any fights and don't want my props to walk off. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal has a holding cell and a bus that takes large numbers of people to the jail. One year they had a guy get back stage and go through a roof hatch on one of their sound stages, he could not get back in once the hatch closed and had to call out for help.lol. What a dumb a$$.

[Jim Warfield]

Talladaga race track also had a holding cell for drunkies. I was told some of them are "sleeping" face down on the concrete floor til the race is over, then they are taken to the county jail.

[Frightfactory UK]

Well, im in a rutt now.

A. Our Police dont have firearms - only at airports etc

B. You cant hire a off duty officer in UK.

So, im gonna have to use Doormen. Luckily they are allowed to give the odd jab and left hook if anyone tries it.

Man, this could be my worst nightmare - why cant people just have F@ckin fun nowadays rather than trying to mess up peoples hard work.

Ok, im calm lol

[Accipiter]

Just hire a couple of really big responsible guys. All they have to do is make sure no violence happens in your haunt. If they leave and do stuff elsewhere that’s not your problem. We do have a uniformed officer at ours but the only arrest he’s ever made was for drugs not violence. Drunken/belligerent patrons are just handled by the staff. The key is identifying the danger. Most people (90%) are just jerks who what to see what you or your staff will do if they start something. Tell them if they don’t calm down they will have to leave. This usually calms down most of them.

If they still don’t back down, get your guys in. Also, always make sure you have two or more of your staff confronting the worst ones. People will do strange things one on one but will usually yield if there are multiple people in front of them. Having multiple people on your side in a situation also reduces the potential danger to your employees.

The key is controlling the drunks and getting the violent people out of your haunt. Once they are escorted out the door they are no longer your responsibility.

[gadget-evilusions]

we have a security staff of 20, and 3-4 sherrifs at all times. If any one gets violent or hostile, our security calls the sherrif and they get to go to jail.

[Jim Warfield]

I knew about guns in England but do they allow tear gas in aerosol dispensers? Do they allow any kind of personal protection devices at all?

[Frightfactory UK]

We have CS gas containers, and trunchons (Hard steel sticks) that they are armed with.

But these would only be used in extreme circumstances, ie they police was being attacked themselves and would then use them in defense!