Local Instigator Makes Trouble at CMoM Children's Museum

These two youngsters at left are playing a nice game of Plinko at the Children's Museum of Manhattan just prior to the area lapsing into a snake pit of anarchy and warmongering at 1:30pm on February 2. After hustling from the brouhaha under the watchful glare of nearby parents, Uncle Tom, 40, said, "After the whole room broke out in a free-for-all street fight, I just left."

According to Tom, he had been innocently playing with Nephew Jackson, 1, who had crawled behind the Plinko machine to the backside where a high ledge and exposed electrical outlets didn't appear to be entirely child-friendly. Tom would call out a color and Jackson allegedly found a Plinko ball in that hue and handed it over the top of the machine to his attentive uncle.

"It was good fun until this show-off kid started it all. Every time I named a color, he would find a ball and chuck it at me. Sometimes multiple balls. That kid really had a keen eye as well as a powerful arm. The other children found him very inspirational."

Despite conflicting recollections of the sequence of events, Tom maintains his version. "The next thing I knew, a whole rebel faction had piled on top of Jackson behind the Plinko machine blindly flinging balls with wild abandon. They were bouncing off the ceiling. I was helplessly caught in the cross fire. What else could I do but grab my nephew and evacuate?"