Facebook Birthday Party Goes Viral and Out of Control

It’s another case of a Facebook party invite going wrong. And it’s a big reminder that if you’re using the social networking site to invite friends to your birthday remember to mark it private or you could get hundreds of “friends” you’ve never even met.

1,500 teens and young adults gathered outside the house of a girl only known as Thessa to celebrate her 16th birthday over the weekend in Hamburg-Bramfeld., Germany. Thessa wasn’t there but 100 police were.

Police spokesman Mirko Streiber said:

“We had cordoned off the house, some 100 police were on the ground, four of them on horses – but that did not keep the kids from celebrating,”

And celebrating they did. There was alcohol and chants of “Celebrating a birthday is not a crime.” A few had signs saying, “Where’s Thessa?” Some even brought cake and presents for the teen who started the whole thing by posting an invite to her birthday on Facebook without marking it as private.

Her intention was to have a few friends over but when she got a response of15,000 her parents made her cancel the festivities.

Announcements were made that the party was no more but that didn’t stop 1,500 people from gathering and creating a party of their own.

“It was sheer insanity but mostly peaceful,” Streiber laughingly summed up the night.

Nonetheless, a party this size couldn’t go without a few mishaps. Dozens of girls in flip flops cut their feet on broken glass. A police officer was injured when he tried to keep someone from breaking the Mercedez-Benz logo off his car. There were 2 small fires.

And apparently a 16-year old girl crushed she missed the party of a lifetime in her honor. [KVAL]