Image Source: elenaaugustinepatch/TikTok, The Nerd Stash
While visiting a beach in Oregon, a couple vacationing at the beach witnessed a family celebrating their gender reveal. Everything would have been all well and good had it not been for the burst of pink and gold confetti littering the beach, causing the Oregon man to—in his words—have a “crash out.”
This Labor Day weekend my wife and I had a little vacation in Newport, Oregon on Sunday I was flying my kite at Nye beach, and I looked over and saw an explosion of pink confetti, I could not believe it… The confetti was just blowing way up the beach with thousands of little pink and gold hearts of litter. I look over and saw the family just proudly posing for pictures in the mess they just made. I was disgusted. After a while of taking photos they noticed me and several others looking at them and they started to pretend to clean up so I approached them, they assured me they are cleaning up the gold plastic ones only, because the paper ones are “biodegradable” (which I doubt, they felt waxy). I decided to help clean too and after maybe 3 minutes I notice they are turned around and just packing their stuff up to leave. So I did have a little crash out which I included, I think what I was meaning to say was that they only care about themselves or something and it came out weird. After that I called the police, the first dispatcher I talked to was great, I told her right away its not a big emergency but this happened and I can get off the line if its not an emergency, and she assured me no, they do care about this, and took down some information and she asked if I could get their license plate number and vehicle description, and to call them back with that information. So I followed them to the parking lot and when I called the police again I got kinda chastised at for calling 911 and I explained that the last operator told me to call back with information, then the new operator said she found the report but its not an emergency, while on the phone with her I was following the family and they started yelling at me “come at me bro” style. I was keeping my distance, and did not want any kind of confrontation, but with how they started acting toward me, and the father coming toward me puff chested, I decided to turn away and go back to clean up their mess rather than get into anything. In the end I did not get their license plate or car description, and I do not think the police ended up doing anything. In the end the pile of gold is what I cleaned up after about 2 hours of picking up pieces, the mess was strewn well over a quarter mile. My wife cleaned up even more than this and a few people also stopped to help clean up for a little bit too, I think we probably cleaned up 70% of the gold, but there are still probably hundreds of the gold blown around and thousands of the pink ones, I chose to just do the gold to at least try to minimize the damage since they are clearly plastic… It was such a bummer to witness such a flagrant display of narcissism and selfishness and seeing them literally revel in their trash for photos, it just kinda broke me. #oregoncoast#litter#genderreveal#coast#genderrevealfail
Posted to the Oregon man’s wife’s TikTok page, Elenaaugustinepatch, J. Brown caught on camera “thousands of little pink and gold hearts of litter” left over on the beach, as a result of the family using it in conjunction with taking photos. “I was disgusted,” J. Brown wrote in the caption of his video.
In J. Brown’s video, he then confronts the family, sounding irritated and disappointed. One of the women responds with, “They say they’re biodegradable.” He responds, “No, they’re not. They’re plastic, man. This sucks.” He shows a picture of the clearly plastic heart litter, which was left all over the beach, as well as the litter leftover, which he judges spans about “a quarter mile.”
Although they attempted to help clean up, according to J. Brown, they didn’t stay long. While he’s still cleaning confetti, he sees that the family is packing up their stuff to leave, fully prepared to avoid helping.
He decided to call police and see what they had to say. Unfortunately, though one operator shared his concern, another acted like it wasn’t an emergency and chastised him for calling.
Viewers Shame the Family Online and Call for Charges to Be Made
Clearly more environmentally conscious than people are given credit, viewers online felt J. Brown’s “crash out” was well-deserved (though mild it was). Many were glad J. Brown spoke up, even if nothing was ultimately done. His wife not only posted it on her TikTok, but J. Brown shared the video on Reddit.
Many viewers were just as appalled by the family’s lack of awareness for the environment. “Sooo, they polluted the beach for a [expletive] gender reveal?!?! 😒”
Others felt charges need to be made and laws changed. “All confetti that isn’t biodegradable should be illegal 😤,” argued one viewer. Another called for the family to be “charged” for littering.
On Reddit, one commenter claimed to have been in the area, too. “I was just at a gate picking some of these up wondering what they were. [Expletive] abysmal.”
According to J. Brown, he and his wife, Elena, did their best to clean the beach. He judges they cleaned up about 70% of the debris, but he admits “there are still probably hundreds” of hearts left behind. “It was such a bummer to witness such a flagrant display of narcissism and selfishness,” he adds.
Brady has been writing about video games for the better part of four years. When he isn't obsessing over RPGs or games from his childhood, there's a good chance he's working on another short story.
