ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — Staff at an Army surplus store in Englewood said back in 2001, there was a trend of people buying gas masks.
It was more than 20 years ago when store manager Chris Moore said people were buying the masks.
“To me, the people that do that aren’t the true Avs fans. They’re the people looking to kind of just go down there and have some shenanigans,” Moore said.
When the Avalanche won their second Stanley Cup in 2001, riots ensued.
A total of 63 people were arrested after 5,000 people crowded downtown Denver, most of them were charged with vandalism and disturbing the peace.
“Yeah, I do remember people buying gas masks,” Moore said.
Moore recalls people, back then, coming to his store to buy gas masks to use if and when police used tear gas to break rioters apart.
“Usually, I always tell them they’re for novelty purposes only, we don’t sell them with filters,” Moore said.
The trend of people buying masks, Moore said, is for a different reason these days.
“A lot of people in these past couple of months have been coming in and buying stuff for Ukraine and shipping it over,” Moore said.