FORT WORTH, Texas _ Hundreds of people crammed into a warehouse in downtown Fort Worth on Friday and Saturday night to celebrate a bar director's birthday in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Corey Mobley said he decided to have a party for his 37th birthday at the last minute and invited hundreds of his friends to the secret location. The rain on Friday night kept some people away, so he decided to have a second round on Saturday.
"I was bored and there's nothing else to do," he said about the parties.
Mobley is the director of operations and founder of Whiskey Garden's Turtle Races, an event usually held every other Monday in which an array of turtles race to a finish line. He plans and hosts parties for the bar and throws an annual birthday party, he said. Since the bars are closed, he decided to have the warehouse parties instead.
On Friday, 300 to 400 people filled the warehouse. On Saturday, hundreds more showed up. Mobley broke open a coronavirus-themed pinata filled with mini bottles of Rumple Minze, and photos show the crowd of people packed together to take a picture.
When asked if he felt that hosting the party was irresponsible, Mobley said he had no comment. He added that he and fellow service industry workers are ready to go back to work, and he is glad Gov. Greg Abbott is reopening businesses. Bars can reopen this Friday at 25% capacity.
"I feel like your body is going to be stronger if you're out around people and _ I don't know," Mobley said. "I don't want to get into this politics stuff. I didn't really think about it."
He said he believes everyone is going to catch COVID-19 at some point and "being cooped up in the house is not going to keep people from getting it." He has known several people with coronavirus.
However, staying at home and avoiding contact is the most important way to prevent coronavirus spread, said Diane Cervantes, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at UNT Health Science Center.
"Social distancing and avoiding crowds is the foundation of avoiding transmission," she said.
Transmission is especially likely for people who are in enclosed spaces for an extended amount of time. Reports show many cases can be traced back to large gatherings, which likely helped kickstart the pandemic in the first place.
The more cases an area has, the more likely the health care and public health system will become overwhelmed, and many people with the virus might not have symptoms and can spread COVID-19 to others.
"Who isn't tired of being cooped up?" Cervantes said. "But you have to consider it's not just about yourself. It's about other people in the community."
Cervantes said those who went to the party, or another large gathering, should monitor themselves for five to six days for symptoms and self-quarantine for 14 days to avoid spreading the virus to others.
When asked if he would have another party, Mobley said if the bars were not opening back up Friday, then he probably would.
Hundreds lambasted Mobley on social media over the parties, which he posted about on his public Facebook. Various Fort Worth-based Facebook groups shared the photos and criticized Mobley and those at the party.
In turn, Mobley posted screenshots of those posts and said his "new job is pissing off Karens." He specifically targeted a private Facebook group for Fort Worth women.
"I kind of wanted to troll them," Mobley said about the women's group. "To be honest, it didn't upset me at all, it kind of made me laugh more than anything."
Frida Castaneda, who works at a retail shop on West 7th Street, posted about Mobley's party in her closed neighborhood group. He posted a screenshot of her post to his page, which she said was "childish" and felt like harassment since the screenshot included her Facebook name.
Casteneda said she was frustrated by Mobley's party and his cavalier response to coronavirus.
"It's ruining it for all of us because we are not able to open until it's safe, and they're making it take even longer," she said.
She added since Mobley appears to have so much energy and connections, he could use those resources to help those who have been out of work.
"It just shows the level of immaturity, arrogance and selfishness that he's operating under," she said. "Not just to have the party, but then to boast about it and call people out by name."
Fort Worth police showed up at the party on Friday in response to several noise complaints, Mobley said. Officers "were cool" and "were just mad about the noise," he said, but added he did not talk to officers directly. He said they eventually "kind of just went away and never came back." The party lasted until about 3:30 a.m. on Friday.
Fort Worth police said without an address to go off of, they could not confirm whether or not they responded to the call. Mobley declined to provide an address for the parties.
The Fort Worth police Pandemic Response Team is meant to break up gatherings. On May 10, the team tried to end a party with more than 400 people at Village Creek Park in Fort Worth, but police said the crowd refused to leave until shots were fired. Five people were injured in the shooting, which police said was gang-related.
"We can't do this on our own, we need our citizens to partner with us, we need our citizens to be right by our side," police spokesman Buddy Calzada said after the park shooting. "And if they continue to do that, we're going to get through this together. But man, we're asking for your help."
On Saturday, police showed up again and drove around the warehouse for a few hours trying to find a way into the place, Mobley said. At about 2 a.m., they opened the gates and "busted in" to break up the party. He said he has not heard from Fort Worth Code Compliance.
Several bars have received citations for opening ahead of Abbott's order. Thirsty Armadillo and World of Beer were cited on May 2 and May 9, respectively, and Chubby's was cited on March 31 and April 2.
A World of Beer manager _ who declined to give his last name _ declined to specify what the citation was for. Chubby's owner Jeremy Hooten said Code Compliance claimed the restaurant was operating as a bar because they sold alcohol. Thirsty Armadillo manager Fred Barnett was cited for selling alcohol out his back door during a coronavirus-shutdown protest on May 1.
Thirsty Armadillo was cited two more times and shut down after opening on May 1 and 2, according to WFAA.
