MONROE, Ohio -- The Ohio State Highway Patrol is preparing for holiday shopping madness – and shoppers who last year were behaving badly.
"Traffic actually stopped on the highway," says OSP Sergeant Clint Arnold. "And the people exited their cars, jumped the fences and got into the mall because they didn't want to wait until the ramps cleared up."
Flora Sullivan, 76, of Mason, is amazed people would do that.
"I think they must be out of their minds,” she says.
Instead of preparing to fight the crowds, Sullivan enjoys some banana pudding after a Thanksgiving meal with her family.
She stays away from Black Friday, because she says "The issue of finding a place to park, walking to and from the stores.”
While the Premium Outlets Mall has room for 4,500 cars, there will be some congestion getting in.
The intersection leading to the complex off of I-75 is under construction and the right turn lane to State Route 63 is closed off.
Orange barrels line the off ramp, and the highway patrol has put up signs warning people that the freeway is not a parking lot.
"If they do do it – and we do catch them out there – they will be ticketed and the vehicle will be towed," says Sgt. Arnold.
The mall will open its lot at 9 p.m. this evening and the stores follow an hour later – so, you have time to get where you need to go.
For those who still find the highway a good place to park, Sgt. Arnold asks them to remember: "The money that they think they may have save at the sale, they will have just lost in the cost of the traffic citation and the tow bill."
