BREA — At least two citations were issued and one car was towed Friday night, Dec. 29, after about 1,000 cars hopscotched from one parking lot to another in La Habra, Brea and Fullerton during a massive meetup of automobile enthusiasts, authorities said.

Around 10:20 p.m. those participating in the meetup converged on a parking lot outside of a Target store near Imperial Highway and Harbor Boulevard in La Habra, Brea police Lt. Adam Hawley said.

As police were arriving at the parking lot the group dispersed and cars, including numerous domestic and import vehicles that had been modified, began heading east on Imperial Highway. Eventually about 1,000 vehicles filled two parking lots on the north and south side of the 2500 block of Imperial Highway in a commercial area in Brea, Hawley said.

Just after 11 p.m., Brea police closed Imperial Highway between the 57 Freeway and Kraemer Boulevard. It was later reopened.

Eleven officers from the Brea and Fullerton police departments closed all of the exits to the parking lots except one, and the cars left, heading west on Imperial Highway into Fullerton. Several of the cars were pulled over by police and citations were issued to some drivers.

Large car clubs, which promote the meetups through social media, have in the past converged on Southern California cities, posing a danger to people in parking lots where they congregate, Hawley said.

“In many of their past meetups they have started racing in parking lots and doing burnouts with many pedestrians present,” he said. “We really want to shut them down before that takes place.”

There were no reports of injuries in the Friday night incident.