Cheaper than ‘court costs and jail’: People are paying to break stuff in ‘rage rooms’

You know you’ve wanted to throw that stupid computer out of the window at least once, or felt like chuckin’ that cell phone across the room.

Or maybe, out of anger, you’ve wanted to hurl a glass into the ground and watch it blast apart into hundreds of shards.

Paula Del Toro of Hannibal, Missouri, knows what that feels like. She also has a shed in her backyard that she turned into a “rage room,” - a place she has filled with breakable stuff and will charge people money to come in and destroy it. It’s called Outrage.

So-called rage rooms, which have been around for at least the last year, appear to be gaining momentum. Del Toro opened hers on Monday.

One also opened this month in Memphis, Tennessee. And another rage room called Smash Something opened this month in Tulsa, where you can take a whack at an Xbox, according to KJRH Tulsa.

“I’d rather people take it out here than at home,” Del Toro told The Herald-Whig in Quincy, Ill. “I want to do this for the community. It’s cheaper to take your anger out in a rage room than to pay for it in court costs and jail.”

The rage room concept is simple.

Customers suit up in protective suits - safety glasses are a must with all that flying glass - and choose a “weapon” of smash destruction. Typical ones are sledgehammers, baseball bats and golf clubs. (Waivers are typically signed, too.)

Then patrons start whacking away.

Some places let you choose your own music to vent by. The Rage Room in Hackensack, New Jersey, which opened earlier this year, recommends “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit, according to NJ.com.

Old electronics are typical targets; some places let you bring your own stuff from home to break. The perk here is that someone else cleans up the mess.

The cost typically depends on how much time you spend in the room - as little as $10 for five minutes in some places, north of $50 for 30 minutes in others.

The most expensive, $195 package at The Rage Room in Hackensack costs $195 and you get to break as many as 40 items, according to NJ.com.

When people put the full force of their anger and frustration - and back - into it, their moment of zen looks like this, from the Craze in Memphis Facebook page.

Breaune Crouch, a writer for Bluff City Weekend entertainment website in Memphis, compared the therapeutic value of smashing stuff against meditation.

“Meditation, in my humble opinion, requires patience and practice,” Crouch wrote earlier this month. “After a long week of crummy days and even crummier attitudes, you may not have the patience to practice this skill.

“Insert instant rage-ification for 5 minutes and voila – you’re at peace with the world again.”

The new Rage Room in Bristol, Tennessee offers a “Temper Tantrum” package for smashing beer bottles, wine glasses and other breakables.

“Nowadays, everyone is completely stressed out, whether you’re at home or at work. There’s just not enough avenues available for you to release stress productively or safely,” Rage Room owner Eric Knight told WBIR in Knoxville.

Therapist Sydney Peltier gave WBIR his professional opinion about the value of breaking stuff: “It’s good to think about these rage room experiences as being similar to a really great workout.”

Ian Park, co-owner of The Breaking Point in Tuscon, which opened in May, told the Arizona Daily Star that a trip to a rage room shouldn’t replace a visit with a professional. “If someone is dealing with depression, this would not be the place to go,” he told the Daily Star.

Del Toro in Hannibal told the Herald-Whig she hopes people in her town - Mark Twain’s boyhood home - can “step outside of the box” and just enjoy the beauty of non-anger management.

Besides, she’s got some special holiday events coming up.

“Definitely on Valentine’s Day,” she told the newspaper, “it’s game on.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 4:09 PM.