This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/altrightobserver on 2026-04-10 14:00:10+00:00.

Original Title: TIL about the Cabbage Patch Riots, a series of violent customer outbursts at several retail stores in late 1983. Thousands of customers at retail stores such as JC Penney would wait in line for hours with unfulfilled “promise tickets,” reportedly leading to trampling and attacks with baseball bats.

It was not clear why the "homely" dolls were so intensely desired. A Time article featured a theory from a doctor that "most children between the ages of six and twelve fantasize that they were really adopted", which made it appealing to experience the adoption fantasy through the dolls, which came with birth certificates and adoption papers.

If my parents were crazy enough to attack people with baseball bats over a fucking doll I would fantasize I was adopted too.