A lonely pensioner accidentally started the smokiest flash mob in New York (4 photos + 1 video)

Category: Interesting photo stories, PEGI 0+

Today, 02:01

A grandfather named Bob lives in Brooklyn and is so bored he can't describe it. So he decided the cure for loneliness isn't the internet or cats, but good old nicotine.

Grandpa turned 74, and his friends were dwindling: some had died, some had quit smoking, some had moved to Florida to die in warmer weather. Then one day, Bob took a stack of brightly colored flyers and wrote on them in large letters, "Hey, you smoke? "Come to the corner of Waverly and University on November 21st at 2:00 PM—let's smoke and chat," he posted all over Manhattan.

The offer was simple: 2:00 PM - 2:05 PM. Just five minutes, one cigarette, and if you confirm your participation via QR code, a free cigarette from Bob himself. The QR code led to Partiful, where he wrote: "I'll give you one free if you confirm your participation."

He was counting on ten, maximum twenty, old-timers like himself who still remember the taste of a real Marlboro. But New York is a place where if you invite anyone to try anything for free, everyone will come running. On the appointed day and time, about 2,500 people gathered at the intersection to smoke. Young people in down jackets, women with dogs, students, office workers, even tourists.

The old man clearly didn't expect such a rush, but he kept his word and, after declaring that smoking was harmful, began handing out cigarettes and signing autographs. For five minutes, the street was drowning in smoke, as if it were 1985 again, when you could still smoke in the subway without getting a fine the size of a mortgage.

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The police arrived, looked, shrugged, and left: fining two and a half thousand people at once for violating the smoking law in public places is technically impossible. And how could they fine an old man who staged the most heartwarming flash mob of the year?

As a result, Bob became an internet star. He says he plans to do it again, only next time he'll be handing out coffee, because he needs to protect his lungs.