Potentially thousands of Scottish teenagers have been deprived of a legendary game of hide-and-seek planned at an IKEA store, after police intervened to prevent the momentous sporting event from occurring.

Around 3,000 people signed up on Facebook to participate in a marathon hide-and-seek match at an IKEA store in Glasgow. Scheduled for Saturday, the festivities were tragically sabotaged after staff at the ubiquitous Swedish furniture store caught wind of the unauthorized event.

The humorless furniture dealer mobilized additional security and alerted the Glasgow police department, which dispatched five officers to the scene of the pre-meditated children’s game crime.

Throughout the afternoon, countless teenagers who had hoped to spend their Saturday night innocently squeezed between easy-to-assemble cabinets, instead were cruelly turned away from the store.

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News of the hide-and-seek bust quickly spread on social media, discouraging many would-be hiders and seekers from showing up at the Swedish furniture emporium. Police reportedly guarded the store until it closed at 8pm.

The manager of the Glasgow IKEA branch told media he understood that “playing games in one of our stores may be appealing to some,” but such activities make it difficult to “ensure we are offering a safe environment and relaxed shopping experience for our customers.”

Recognized as a mecca of the classic children’s game, hide-and-seek pilgrims have been traveling to IKEA branches across Europe since 2014. The trend was particularly pronounced in Holland, where a staggering 32,000 Facebook users RSVPed for a game in Eindhoven. Most of the stores initially allowed the events, but their popularity quickly made them unfeasible, resulting in a worldwide ban in 2015. An IKEA spokesperson explained that the furniture chain needed to “make sure people are safe, and that’s hard if we don’t know where they are.”

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