It’s every Washington area teenager’s dream: You’re at Tysons Corner Center — maybe stalking your crush at Abercrombie, or slurping an Orange Julius, and suddenly, pfft! The power blows, and you’re not only at the mall, but your STUCK at the mall, maybe forever.
The dream — or total nightmare, if you’re the sweet grandmother on her way to an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar — has come true for thousands of shoppers at Tysons, where the power went out just after 12:20 pm.
Stores all too aware of teens’ tendencies toward mallrat chaos shooed people out of all stores and slammed down their security gates, said Hannah, a Friday afternoon shopper from Fairfax.
“It’s not really chaotic — everyone is just kind of confused and bummed,” she said.
Thwarted shoppers gathered under the skylights in the mall’s atrium, and many eventually headed for the doors.
A mall cop reportedly told shoppers on the way out that Dominion Power is aware of the problem, but that there’s no estimate for when power will return.
UPDATE: Tysons power was restored at 1:44 p.m., according to a Dominion Power spokeswoman. An equipment failure caused the outage.
