They waited months to see Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on video but when the big day arrived the young wizard magically disappeared.
Yesterday's wintry blast created perfect conditions for a spot of Harry Potter watching and the nasty weather was timed magically with the nationwide release of the video.
However, fans of the wizard-in-training were cursing when they settled down to a morning of magic in front of the television only to find their video was blank.
Perhaps a spell was cast over Rotorua's Whitcoulls store -- its entire stash of videos were mysteriously blank.
Whitcoulls staff had donned witches' hats and cloaks and waved wands but they could not muster the power to undo the spell.
The 290 videos had to be sent back to Warner Brothers for replacement, assistant manager Jill Simpson said.
Warner Brothers replaced the videos in Whitcoulls yesterday afternoon.
It is not yet known how many videos were in the bad batch but senior category manager for Whitcoulls Alison Hansen said Warner Brothers indicated 500 videos failed quality control and were produced blank.
"Unfortunately, Rotorua appears to have got the bulk of it."
A Warner Brothers spokeswoman would not reveal how many blank videos had been hexed, nor the number of stores affected nationwide.
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
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