Facebook Hack Threatens Holiday Light Display in Union Beach, NJ
An enormously popular holiday light display in Monmouth County that raises money for the Children's Miracle Network is in jeopardy because someone hacked the Facebook page used to promote it.
For years, thousands have flocked to the Gress Holiday Light Spectacular in Union Beach.
Brandon Gress and his family deck their home with over 300,000 lights and feature a variety of interactive displays, including a walk down a festive Bon Jovi Boulevard and more than 100 lighted snowmen.
Gress has always used Facebook to promote and preview the display.
In September, Facebook locked down the page for violating its community standards. Gress says friends started alerting him to irregular activity on his profile, and he realized he had been hacked.
Despite all efforts to resolve the issue with Facebook, the page remains locked down, and Gress says the company has been unresponsive.
You can go to the page on Facebook, but the page manager is listed as being from Vietnam, and there has been no activity since August.
Gress told NJ.com, he worries about people coming this year, and the impact this will have on donations.
"This is something that people make part of their family traditions," Gress said, "This is a bigger impact than just us personally."
Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for charity over the last 15 years, and Gress fears people will assume they aren't doing the display this year if they don't see any activity on Facebook.
Eric Scott is the senior political director and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com
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