Photo : Paco Nunez/Anadolu Agency ( Getty Images )

Shopping in IKEA can be an extreme sport in itself. But in the midst of th ese massive stores full of containers, furniture , and Swedish meatballs also lies a pretty great foundation for hide-and-seek. However, when you plan to have 3,000 people partake in such a game, you should expect some pushback, especially from law enforcement. That’s exactly what happened in Scotland when some party pooper cops stopped a major IKEA hide-and-seek competition.




According to The Scotsman, people planned this event on Facebook for a Glasgow IKEA. Apparently, using the big warehouse-type store for this game has been a trend in Europe for years. The newspaper reports that in the early days of this trend, IKEA allowed these events to happen, such as 32,000 Facebook users pledging a game in in Eindhoven, and 19,000 in Amsterdam. But by 2015, IKEA put a big axe on these fun times because it was just getting out of hand, as you’d expect, as t he trend “has seen people hiding in fridges, under beds and in the firm’s big blue shopping bags. ” Well, thos e bags are r eally large . But i magine if you foun d the perfect bed in an IKEA catalog , went to the store to check it out, and discovered several pre-teens hiding under the sheets. And frankly, we’re a little con fused by t he massive setup: How many people hide? How many seek? Are they equal? And how can you tell which is which? Who wins, exactly?

So for this latest hide-and-seek endeavo r, Complex reported that the store manager posted to Facebook, letting the thousands of people who’d signed up that the (highly unofficial) game wasn’t going to happen . According to The Scotsman, extra security and officers “ t hroughout the afternoon, [so] groups of youths who looked like they were only there for the game were turned away from the shop.” Someone might want to check in all the fridges, though.