PLEASE NOTE: A follow up to this, Mud Wars Part II – An Apology Isn’t Enough just posted August 1, 2012

Six thousand people in Chicago got scammed this past weekend and the big question being asked is: What will be done about it?

Mud Wars – which billed itself as “Chicago’s Mud Run” and took place on July 28, 2012 on Chicago’s Northerly Island – deceived participants on such a high level that people are now talking of lawsuits against the owner of Biz Events, Joe Bizzieri.

The complaints are plenty (see below) and answers are elusive. Within 24 hours of the event, the organizer’s website has been taken down, its Facebook page wiped of all negative comments and complaints, and the owner either refusing to answer his phone or having it disconnected altogether.

How bad was it? Well, in no particular order…

Estimated time to check-in was over an hour with lines reaching past three-quarters of a mile.

The line to check-in backpacks and personal belongings was over 40 minutes.

There was no security where backpacks and personal belongs were stored. They were in an open room sorted on multiple tables.

“Goody bags” which were to have dog tags and free beer tickets were nowhere to be found. Some people reported that these bags, too, were all laid out on tables with no security and people ended up pillaging them for the free beer tickets. Yet later one staff member said that the bags never showed up due to a delivery problem.

At check-in, a friend of mine asked about the free beer and was told, quote, “Oh. You have to buy two beers to get one free.” He later asked the beer vendor about that and was literally laughed at.

There were five, count ’em, five Port-o-Potties with no toilet paper for 6,000 registered runners and thousands more friends and families.

Port-o-Potties with no toilet paper for 6,000 registered runners and thousands more friends and families. Advertised a “family friendly”, there was to be a kiddie obstacle course, face-painting, and bean bag toss games. None of the above were present.

The run was billed as a 5k. Yet one runner reported his Nike GPS calculated the course at 1.75 miles. Another runner was explicitly told by staff that the same course had to be run 2-3 times to reach the 5k distance.

The obstacles, themselves, were built and completed less than a half-hour before the run.

By the 3rd wave, the obstacles started to break apart with one runner telling me a 2 x 4 cracked and broke while he was hanging from it.

One obstacle had broken glass underneath it.

The three advertised giant mud pits were not giant and not until the 3rd wave of runners did they actually become mud because the water trucks hadn’t arrived yet.

No water was available on the course nor at the finish line. Though there was a golf cart selling bottles of water to those waiting in the registration line for $2 a piece.

There were no official start times or waves (after the first two or three). Hundreds just sort of mulled around the starting line and started at will.

There were no security, staff or volunteers at any of the obstacles in case of an injury.

The DJ was a guy playing music from his iPad with what could be described as distorted, 80’s style, speakers.

Runners were supposed to be hosed down at the end of the run (by “Mud Girls” no less), yet there was no clean up option provided. Instead, runners detoured straight to the beach and into Lake Michigan to clean off.

Registration was supposedly closed at 6,000 runners though there was no verification system in place and ANYONE could have ran for free (and I believe some did)

Entrance into the “party area” was $15 per adult – paid in advanced – though everyone was being admitted.

Additionally the course was said to have been designed by former Marines and ex-NFL football players. I’ve seen some Marine training and, like Al Bundy, played just high school football. There’s no way this is true. The obstacles were designed by, at best, some guy with extra wood and nails laying around his backyard and a blueprint drawn on a cocktail napkin at some dive bar in Chicago Ridge.

I shudder to think what might’ve happened if someone got hurt. I wonder how much personal property was stolen. I question how the City of Chicago or even Living Social and other sites involved in selling registrations could allow this happen. Or, I wonder, what they can do after the fact?

Joe Bizzieri and his company Mud Wars committed outright fraud to the tune of at least $300,000. I’m hoping at least one of the 6,000 registrants was a lawyer and I’m hoping that somehow, this little BLOG makes its way to that lawyer and I can get in on the pending litigation. All I want is mine and my friend’s registration fees refunded and the $22 I ponied up for parking.

Mr. Bizzieri. You owe me $117.00.