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Young Danes attempting to sleep over in Ikea stores
Lucie Rychla
December 22nd, 2016
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This article is more than 8 years old.
New phenomenon is not only illegal but also potentially very dangerous
A new phenomenon of spending a night in an Ikea store has reached Denmark.
According to the furniture company, there have already been 10 cases when young people attempted to sleep over in an Ikea store in Denmark in the past four months.
“It has spread – in four out of our five Danish warehouses, young people tried to hide inside before the closing time in an attempt to spend the night at IKEA,” Mette Maria Starcke, IKEA’s spokesperson, told Politiken.
“We do not know, of course, if someone has successfully managed to hide from security staff throughout the night.”
READ MORE: IKEA Denmark’s employees’ Xmas gift is a month’s salary plus 30 percent
Inspired by viral video from Belgium
Ever since two pranksters from Belgium filmed their sleepover under the roof of the furniture company and posted it on Youtube, many have attempted to do the same.
Because of that the Danish IKEA stores have increased security at nights and hired extra guards.
“It is of course an additional financial expense, but we do it because we do not want to risk anything,” Starcke noted.
In several cases, the youth climbed up onto high-level shelves in the storage facilities to hide from guards when the store was still open.
READ MORE: IKEA to open huge store in central Copenhagen
Illegal and dangerous prank
“It is incredibly dangerous,” Starcke warns.
“The young people can fall down, but they can also [accidentally] push items down from the shelves which may harm other customers. It has fortunately not happened yet, but it would be terribly tragic if it did happen.”
Spending a night in any Ikea store is illegal and each attempt is reported to the police.
The phenomenon has spread quickly over the past six months and has already been observed in Sweden, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, the US, Canada and Japan.
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