What started as a friendly snowball fight ballooned to a crowd of about 300 people that got out of hand on Ash Avenue late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.

Two complaints were filed concerning people throwing snowballs at passing cars on the near-campus street lined with greek houses, according to Ames police reports. There was minor damage to several vehicles.

Kevin Walker, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, reported that his truck was pelted by snowballs while he was driving down Ash. He said it was dented on the door and truck bed. Reports indicated that damage to Walker’s vehicle was less than $100.

“There were way over 100 people,” Walker said of the snowball fight participants. It was “pretty crazy,” he added.

Mark Holm, InterFraternity Council president, attempted to break up the snowball fight. He was called to the scene after the size of the crowd began to get out of control.

Holm said the snowball fight began while fraternity and sorority members were playing snow football. Various other groups of people also eventually found their way to Ash, he said.

Holm estimated that when he arrived at about 12:30 a.m. and began attempting to get greek members inside their respective houses, there were about 300 people participating in the snowball fight.

Holm also said someone brought out a water-balloon launcher, which led greek officials to worry about broken windows.

“We were concerned about the amount of people out there and the possibility of it getting violent,” he said.

Most people didn’t stick around long. Holm said only about 50 individuals were left throwing snowballs when police arrived.

Police reports confirm that the remaining crowd ran off when officers arrived

Snowball fights were common throughout campus Monday night as Mother Nature dumped about 8 inches of good-for-packing snow on the Ames area. The snow was the first heavy dusting in several weeks.