It didn’t come close to Hollywood's The Purge scale of lawlessness, but Toledo residents feared for their safety one summer night in 1979 after police officers and firefighters went on strike. The nightmare began July 2, the day after 3,400 municipal employees walked off the job. There was a threat the waterworks would be shut down. Buses stopped running after a TARTA driver was murdered during a holdup. Arsonists set several blazes, and the Plaza Hotel was firebombed.
