16 Ohio State college students learned the hard way that GoFundMe is not an appropriate place to e-beg for replacement booze.
The other day, The Tab reported that the fun-loving young’uns very nearly had a spring break party ruined when the fuzz showed up:
16 Ohio State students have started a GoFundMe to raise money for an alcohol fund after being forced by the police to pour out every last drop while on spring break in Alabama.
After the group returned home from dinner in Gulf Shores, the cops knocked on their door and discovered an underage student among them. They said they could “pour out all the alcohol or [the police] take [their] friend.”
The group chose to keep their friend while the cops made them pour out “15 handles, a couple of cases of beer and probably about 20 Four Lokos,” Sarah Adams, a senior business major, told The Tab Ohio State.
First of all, who goes to Alabama for spring break? And secondly, who the hell drinks Four Lokos? These guys, apparently. Sorry, no judgements.
The campaign has since been shut down, but we saved an archived copy here. It reads:
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, 16 college kids traveled down to Alabama looking for a spring break getaway. It was night 1, morale was high, things were so good. We had just came back from dinner and so happy to have made it down safely and in each other’s company!
But then…….. a knock on the door. It was the cops. They asked if everyone was of age, and that was not in fact true. We had an underage friend that tried to avoid said 12, but their excellent (still deciding if it was probable) detective entry and skills proved worthwhile, they found him.
The ultimatum: “pour out all the alcohol or we take your friend.” We could not let our young, innocent friend face those types of trials, so the decision was clear. Our hearts broke as we cracked open plentiful amounts of lokos and natty ices and watched our hopes and dreams go down the drain – literally. After the beverages in question were gone, so was morale.
Four Loko aside, before you judge too harshly think back to when you were 20. Hell, 18 even. That may be a loooong time ago for some of you, but surely you dipped into the sauce at least once before you were of age. Some of us did more than dip, rather cannonballed into the deep end. I’m not saying I did, I’m just saying.
Although they quickly collected $365 of their $500, the powers that be at GoFundMe weren’t having this blatant violation of their terms and conditions. Observer reports:
By yesterday, however, the page was shut down—the link to the campaign now redirects to an error message.
Bobby Whithorne, director of strategic communications at GoFundMe, confirmed to the Observer that the Ohio State campaign violated the payment processor WePay’s terms of service—its agreement with GoFundMe stipulates that donations cannot go toward “age restricted products or services, such as alcohol.”
Ohio State spokesman Benjamin Johnson told the Observer the reports were “troubling” because the university “actively develops and implements programming and prevention strategies that are utilized on our campuses.”
It is unknown if the students were at least able to access their $365 before the campaign was removed from GoFundMe. Hopefully they did, that’s like 100 Four Lokos including the 58% alcohol tax.
