Teenie Beanie Babies have arrived at local McDonald’s restaurants, and customers are rushing to get their hands on the little stuffed creations.

“It’s crazy,” said Rich Ostermann, first assistant manager at the McDonald’s restaurant at 217 Welch Ave. in Ames. “People call constantly. I’ve seen the same customers go through the drive-thru three or more times during the day.”

Ostermann said he couldn’t think of another McDonald’s promotion that had created as big of a craze as the teenie Beanie Babies.

Matt Bangtson, second assistant manager at the McDonald’s restaurant at1620 Broad St. in Story City, also said customers seem to be “crazy” for teenie Beanie Babies.

“I told a customer in the drive-thru that their sandwich would be just a second, and they said, ‘But you still have our Beanie Babies, right?'” Bangtson said.

Teenie Beanie Babies are miniature Beanie Babies, a brand of stuffed animals made by Ty.

McDonald’s began selling teenie Beanie Babies on May 22, as part of a Memorial Day weekend promotion. Since then, the restaurants have been swarmed by customers and phone calls requesting the fuzzy toys.

Jenna Hackfort, first assistant manager at the McDonald’s restaurant at 123 S. Duff Ave., said cars with people waiting to place a teenie Beanie Baby order were lined up in the restaurant’s parking lot and down Duff Avenue on Sunday morning.

“We feel so bad about how long the lines are,” Hackfort said, “but most of our customers have been pretty good about [the inconvenience].”

Hackfort said the Duff Avenue McDonald’s sold out of the first four teenie Beanie Babies on the first day they were available.

Hackfort said McDonald’s set up answering machines just to handle the teenie Beanie Babies questions. The message on the answering machine lists the teenie Beanie Baby that is currently for sale at the restaurant and gives a phone number that people can call for more information.

Ostermann said that in a two-hour period, the answering machine at the Campustown McDonald’s was accessed 95 times.

The promotion includes 12 different teenie Beanie Babies. Doby the Doberman, Bongo the Monkey, Twigs the Giraffe and Inch the Worm were the first teenie Beanie Babies in the series and have sold out at all the Ames locations and at Story City.

Because the Ames McDonald’s restaurants only sell one particular teenie Beanie Baby animal at a time, customers cannot purchase the next animal in the series until the restaurant sells out of the current teenie Beanie Baby offered.

To make the hunt for teenie Beanie Babies fair for everyone, no customer can request a specific toy or put one on reserve. In addition, no one can purchase more than 10 toys per visit, and customers must buy at least one food or beverage item for every teenie Beanie Baby they wish to purchase.

One reason the teenie Beanie Babies at McDonald’s are so popular is that the toys have a history of greatly increasing in value.

Currently, customers can receive a teenie Beanie Baby if they purchase a McDonald’s Happy Meal starting at $1.99 for a hamburger Happy Meal, although prices may vary. Or, they can purchase the toy for $1.59 with any one regular food or beverage purchase.

However, Hackfort said she has heard that the complete unwrapped set of teenie Beanie Babies that was sold last year at McDonald’s already runs for $1500.

Laura Shimek, an Ames resident, said she was buying the McDonald’s Beanie Babies for her son, who already has a collection of about 25 Ty Beanie Babies.

Shimek said she couldn’t believe how fast the teenie Beanie Babies were selling.

“They’re not fine glassware; they’re just toys,” Shimek said.

Even though Shimek said she realizes the possible profit she could gain from collecting the toys, she said many adults have forgotten the toys are made for children.

“Quite honestly, I buy two [Beanie Babies],” Shimek said. “One for my son to play with and another to save.”

Shimek also said, although the teenie Beanie Babies are valuable now, “I do think that sometime the bottom will drop out on the market for Beanie Babies.”

Customers are not the only ones who stand to profit from the teenie Beanie Babies. McDonald’s restaurants also seem to be greatly benefiting from their teenie Beanie Baby promotion.

Ostermann said business at the Campustown McDonald’s restaurant is usually slow during the summer since many students leave Ames, but over the Memorial Day weekend the teenie Beanie Baby requests have kept employees busy. The McDonald’s employees themselves have a variety of different opinions about the sudden rush to buy the teenie Beanie Babies.

Hackfort said many employees are having fun with the teenie Beanie Baby promotion.

“I collect a lot of things, too, so I can understand personally why people want them,” Hackfort said.

Bangtson had a different opinion about the teenie Beanie Babies.

“It’s been fun, but I’ll be happy to get rid of them,” he said. “They’re good for business but hard on the employees.”

People looking for a teenie Beanie Baby still have a chance to buy the last toys in the series.

As of press time, the McDonald’s at Welch Avenue in Ames and the restaurant in Story City still have Pinchers the Lobster, Happy the Hippo, Mel the Koala, Scoop the Pelican and Bones the Dog in stock.

The McDonald’s on Duff Avenue and West Lincoln Way have sold out of the first nine teenie Beanie Babies and are expecting to receive a shipment of the last three teenie Beanie Babies — Zip the Cat, Waddle the Penguin and Peanut the Elephant — sometime today.