Hundreds of kids who had been buzzing with excitement behind start lines at the Heber City Police Department on Saturday morning were off like Olympic sprinters as soon as they heard the blare of an airhorn coming through the speakers. Their target? As many of the 12,600 plastic Easter eggs tha t had been scattered across the lawn as they could get their little hands on. The lawn was spotless within 10 minutes.  “If only they were picking up dog (poop) in the backyard,” joked grandfather Troy Palmer from the sidelines. Palmer lives in Orem but came up to Heber City for the weekend to visit his daughter and son-in-law, Kaylee and Alex Agin, and their four children. The kids were quick to scurry back to their parents and grandpa, loot in hand, from the various sections of the lawn. Each was designated for a different division: children under 1 year old, those aged 1 to 4, 5 to 10, 11 to 13 and those with physical or intellectual disabilities. Hunter, 12, recalled the moment the airhorn sounded without warning. “I was just standing there, and then I just heard, ‘beep!’ and saw everyone else running. I didn’t think it was going to go off like that,” he rambled quickly. Credit: Jack Casebolt/Park Record Credit: Jack Casebolt/Park Record Children 13 and younger compete for eggs at the Wasatch County first responders’ Easter egg hunt. Hunter and his family have attended the Wasatch County first responders’ Easter egg hunt through all three of its iterations, but this event saw Hunter’s best performance. He nabbed about 30 colorful eggs and stuffed them into a plastic grocery bag. His strategy, picking up multiple eggs with each hand instead of one at a time, had paid off.  Hunter’s 10-year-old brother, Jagger, returned with a much different spoil of war: an egg-shaped, 16-inch-tall Squishmallow. The brown stuffed animal looked like a bat, but its tag revealed it to be a goblin king named Ambergris. There were over 100 of Ambergris’ brethren spread out across the lawn. It wasn’t quite the “battle” between children Palmer had been expecting. Many kids went home content, their own goblin king in hand. Heber City Police Sgt. Zac Hendricksen, who organized this year’s egg hunt, explained the Squishmallows were a bit of an Easter miracle, albeit an unconventional one. About three weeks before the event, a local landlord donated roughly 125 Squishmallows to the Police Department. She had evicted a tenant who had defaulted on rent. That tenant owned a small army of Squishmallows — ultra popular, super-soft collectible plush toys shaped like various animals or foods — that were still in the box, but she apparently refused to retrieve them despite the landlord’s attempts to return them.  Toddlers compete in the division for ages 1 to 4 at the Wasatch County first responders’ Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Credit: Jack Casebolt/Park Record Police officers picked up the Squishmallows from the landlord using the Police Department’s 26-foot-long enclosed motorcycle trailer. According to Hendricksen, the trailer was nearly overflowing with boxes. “I don’t think we’ll have that opportunity next year,” he said with a laugh. The first responders’ Easter egg hunt began three years ago as the brainchild of Chief Parker Sever. It’s only gotten bigger each year, expanding last year to add a pancake breakfast. Sever estimated that around 1,000 people came this year. The jam-packed parking in the blocks surrounding the Police Department seemed to support that fact. Organizing the Easter egg hunt was a collaborative effort between the Police Department, Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office and Fire District, Department of Natural Resources and Utah Highway Patrol.  The latter agency brought its car crash simulator — two bumper cars mounted on a trailer — to teach kids the importance of wearing a seatbelt while letting them crash into each other at 5 mph.  Meanwhile, inmates booked into the Wasatch County Jail volunteered to help fill the 12,600 eggs. Local Latter-day Saint youth groups pitched in, too. “I’ll be honest with you, this is about a month’s worth of work for a lot of people,” Hendricksen said. “So, it’s kind of nice to have it behind us.” Hendricksen said the egg hunt is a good way for local law enforcement to connect with community members. Employees with the Wasatch Fire District flip pancakes to serve to community members at the Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Credit: Jack Casebolt/Park Record “Sometimes people are just scared of cops, so then, when they get to come out and see them in this aspect, it makes them know that we’re all human,” he said. The egg hunt also allows Sever to operate his “candy cannon,” which uses pressurized air to shoot candy through a muzzle made of PVC pipe.  “If you put too much pressure, though, it just blows all the wrappers off the candy,” Sever explained. He was speaking from experience. The contraption, created in his garage a few years ago, involved a lot of trial and error. Many kids jumped around with excitement as candy shot up in the air and rained down from the sky. But not all were impressed with Sever’s invention. Pouting as though she were about to burst into tears, 8-year-old Riley Pettee whined, “I don’t like it because something hit me in the head.” But she cheered right up when she showed off her bag full of eggs. Plastering a smug grin on her face, she bragged that the egg hunt had been “easy.” The post Kids compete for candy, glory and over 12,000 eggs in Heber City Police Department’s Easter egg hunt appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less