LI shoppers, employees recall harrowing Tanger Outlets traffic jam

The Tanger Outlets in Deer Park returned to normal Saturday after a harrowing Black Friday traffic jam trapped shoppers and employees in the parking lot for hours.

Some of them recalled the scene in interviews Saturday after venting their frustration on social media.

Ashley Kimkowski said she left work Friday as a manager at Francesca's, a women's clothing store, about 3 p.m. and began timing her exit from the parking lot as a "joke."

By the time she left the outlets, the sun had set and her phone's stopwatch feature had ticked away four hours and one minute.

"The car in front of me ran out of gas," said Kimkowski, of New Hyde Park. "Their friend had time to go to the gas station, fill a five-gallon jug of gas and bring it back before anyone even moved."

A Tanger representative could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Suffolk police said in a statement Friday that they dispatched officers to the scene and asked "everyone in the area to please remain patient and calm while we work to alleviate the congestion." No road rage incidents were reported, a police spokesman said Saturday.

Tara Muller, of Huntington, said traffic was normal when she arrived at the outlets about 12:30 p.m. Friday to see a movie with her sister-in-law and 7-year-old daughter. When they tried to leave about 3 p.m., she said, waiting vehicles crisscrossed the parking lot.

"It was insane," Muller said. "People were coming out, back to their cars, just staring in disbelief."

Muller said her family exited the lot between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. "For the most part, people seemed fairly calm," she said.

Kimkowski said there was a "parade" atmosphere at times, with drivers standing outside their vehicles and talking about their purchases.

She said it took several calls to get a Tanger security official on the phone as she tried to get home after a shift that began at 5 a.m. Two hours and 45 minutes into the traffic jam, she said, security guards began directing traffic."I watched a beautiful sunset," she said.