Cracker Barrel chaos after hundreds of old chairs tossed in dumpster

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – Chaos ensured after someone took to Facebook to post that an East Naples Cracker Barrel tossed hundreds of old chairs in the dumpster.

Old chairs were dumped out at three Cracker Barrel locations across Southwest Florida Wednesday, but some local residents demanded to know why they weren’t donated.

Emotions ranged from anger to disgust to disbelief. Some in the community drove out to salvage the chairs. They were all taken from the dumpster before the trash truck even arrived.

The whole situation started after one post online that included a picture of the chairs in the dumpster.

“They were mad that the chairs were just thrown in a dumpster when they could of been donated to some many places that need them,” explained John DiMarco who salvaged a few. “I think they should of been donated in my opinion or divided up. I think the manager should of stepped in and said, look everyone can take 10 chairs.”

DiMarco was one of at least four people who showed up to go dumpster diving after seeing the online post about free chairs. But he says it turned into a frenzy.

“People were throwing trash around, people were arguing, fighting over them and it turned into an ugly mess,” said DiMarco. “A lot of people cursing, a lot of people upset, it was kind of crazy so many people could be greedy over chairs.”

DiMarco took 30 chairs and says there were about 200 in total. He says he gave some to people nearby and will keep a total of 30 and sell them for $7 a piece.

“Me being in the junk business, I was the first one to get there.”

WINK News reached out to Cracker Barrel’s corporate office about tossing out the chairs instead of donating them. They said they would get back to us but never did.