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Tuesday, October 08, 2002

By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Sharon businessman James E. Winner Jr. recently looked out the window of his fourth-floor office and smiled at the 200 yellow mums in 50 flower boxes he had installed to spruce up downtown.

He wondered how else he could create energy in a city battered by the decline of the steel industry.

Winner, a savvy businessman and marketer known best for his automobile anti-theft device "The Club," hit upon a plan: Every Saturday in October, an air cannon perched atop The Winner, his four-story women's apparel store, would fire into the air $1,000 in cash -- 500 $2 bills -- and 2,000 coupons worth up to $2 off at any of the myriad Winner businesses.

Surely, he thought, that would create some excitement.

Did it ever.

A crowd estimated at upwards of 2,000 -- some who began congregating as early as 5:30 a.m. Saturday for the 10 a.m. event -- jammed blocked-off West State Street and pushed and shoved and even knocked down children and the elderly in a mad, greedy scramble for the wind-blown loot.

At least three people were injured, most seriously a 16-year-old girl who broke her foot when she fell while trying to get onto the roof of a diner where some money had landed. A 73-year-old woman who recently had hip surgery was knocked to the ground and treated at a hospital. A newspaper reporter was treated after she was hit in the back of the head.

Disdaining civility or safety, people jumped and shoved and grabbed for the cash. The crowd shook the awnings of The Winner, a dozen or more people climbed onto the adjacent roof of Donna's Diner -- another Winner property, named for his wife -- and others dove into the nearby, chilly Shenango River, all in their quest for $2 bills.

Winner yesterday said he was sorry people got carried away and that he felt badly about the injuries. But he said accounts of the event were blown out of proportion.

"The whole event, realistically, was very successful. It was nowhere near as bad as has been reported. Realistically, with a crowd that size, you get more damage at a football game," he said.

"I wish none of it had happened. I wish it would have been perfectly quiet. But when you try to do something exciting, sometimes it comes with collateral damage."

Amanda Smith-Teutsch, 21, was among those caught up. A professional newspaper reporter for all of three weeks, she covered the event for The Herald in Sharon and became part of the story when she was hit in the back of the head.

"We expected something to go a little haywire," she said yesterday. "Anytime you give away money, especially money you shoot off of a roof into a small city, people might get a little crazy."

When she arrived at the site at 9 a.m. she found the crowd peaceful, giving no hint of what was to come. Oldies music was playing and people were friendly and having fun, some carrying fishing nets, others wearing 10-gallon hats in anticipation of the money drop.

"There were a lot of babies in strollers. It seemed like a family event and some people weren't even there to grab money but just to watch," she said. "I thought maybe we were really being cynical [that something would happen], that maybe we were all wrong."

But as soon as the air cannon became visible on top of the building and fired its first blast, the tone immediately changed, she said. The cannon fired in one direction and the crowd surged that way. And then it pointed in a different direction and the crowd changed directions. Over and over again it fired throughout the 20-minute promotion.

Winner said that from his vantage point on top of the store, he didn't see any problems and only learned of them later in the day.

It was different on the ground. "People were being hit in the face, people were getting pushed to the ground," Smith-Teutsch said. "I saw people with skinned up knees, people with black eyes. Some people were yelling in fear, some were yelling with excitement.

"In all fairness to Mr. Winner, I don't think it turned out the way he planned. It got people downtown, which is a good idea ... but this is a pretty depressed area and people did things they might not normally do."

Audrey Shaffer, who manages the Winners' diner, agreed: "He really tried to bring more business downtown. He's trying to do something good for the community and they just got out of hand."

Winner said he'll continue his month-long Saturday promotions but from now on will hand out envelopes to people wearing red, white and blue or carrying an American flag. The envelopes will contain money -- $1,500 this week in denominations ranging as high as $100 -- as well as gift certificates and money-off coupons for his businesses.

"I'm not afraid to push the envelope," he said. "I know this -- it's easy to sit back and shoot arrows but if you don't do anything, nothing ever happens. If you don't create activity downtown, downtowns die."