Crowds, chaos greet release of new iPhone in metro Atlanta

Hundreds of Apple devotees lined up in the darkness early Friday at metro Atlanta shopping malls to get the latest version of the iPhone, leading to a chaotic scene at one mall.

At Lenox Square shopping center, Atlanta police were called in just before 5:30 a.m. to assist with crowd control. According to police dispatch logs, a caller told 911 operators there was a large dispute and “everyone is getting out of control.”

Customers lined up across the street from the mall until being allowed onto its property before daybreak. That’s when things got chaotic, said Alan Waugh of Mobile, Ala., who identified himself as the caller.

“Everybody just started trampling everyone trying to get across the street …” Waugh said. “I called APD because I was afraid someone was going to get trampled on or hurt.”

Things were much calmer at Perimeter Mall, where two security guards and a Dunwoody police officer were on the scene before 5 a.m.

Perimeter’s public safety director, Christopher May, credited the smoother rollout to a plan that was posted on the mall’s website.

Security didn’t allow overnight camping but did let people park outside the mall at 1 a.m. and begin lining up two hours later. At 5 a.m., the crowd of about 250 was led through a service entrance and to the mall’s upper level, where the Apple store is located.