Urban Legend: Savage Swings

As you move south down the Jersey Shore, you will come across some large boardwalks that have games and rides. The first of these boardwalks is in Point Pleasant. At one end is Jenkinson’s aquarium, there is also Jenk’s Club, Martell's Tiki Bar, and other restaurants and attractions. At the other end of the boardwalk, are the rides.

The rides resemble a fair or carnival. People by tickets to get on rides like the ferris-wheel, merry-go-round, bumper-cars and others. Among the teens, one of the more popular rides is the swings.

There is an urban legend about those swings, and a wild one at that. Supposedly the swings’ operator would be instructed never to raise the speed passed 5 (out of 10). All the operators would follow this rule, but then came this one guy.

It was a new operator who was unknown to the rest of the staff working that day. (They were all asked because of what happened.)

A group of young teenagers were on the ride, and they asked for the operator to turn up the speed. The swings flew a little higher into the air as the center platform spun a bit faster. An hour or so later, the teenagers got back on the swing ride. They asked the operator to turn it up faster, and the operator obliged. Unfortunately, not all of the group was aware that the ride would end-up going so fast.

One girl, who was not a fan of fast rides generally, began getting very nervous. She apparently screamed for the operator to turn it off, but to no avail. Another boardwalk worker noticed the swings were going too fast, and ran over to tell the attendant to turn it down.

The girl, desperate to get off the ride, pulled up the metal bar that keeps you in the seat (bad idea). The other worker ran up to the platform and turned the speed down. Unfortunately, before the worker turned the speed down, he accidentally turned it up for a second first. This slight increase in speed, sent the young girl off her swing. People driving along Ocean Avenue saw the young girl fly off the ride, travel through the air, off the boardwalk, and land on the other side of the street.

While there is no record of what happened to the girl, the descriptions of this rogue ride-operator raised suspicion. While every witness said they saw the attendant, all of them gave different descriptions of his appearance, and no suspect was ever found. This leaves the possibility that the Jersey Devil could have been responsible for this tragedy.