Following the riots of 1967 in which 26 people were killed and $11 million in property damage was caused, including the destruction of the Haglers' tenement, his family moved to Brockton, Massachusetts. Hagler said that looking down on the streets at the looters was like watching ants on a picnic table. Ida Mae described the riots as "really terrifying" and nobody left the apartment for three days. The family lay under Veronica's bed during this time, with a pair of bullets smashing through the bedroom window and shattering the plaster above the bed. Hagler and his siblings were forbidden from standing up by Ida Mae, who told her children to "stay away from the windows." Together they crawled about the five-room apartment, sliding around on cushions to reach the bathroom and kitchen. Once it was over, ghetto neighborhoods were in ruin and countless cars had been stripped. Rubbish and mattresses were strewn in the streets, with buildings also abandoned. After another riot nearly two years later, Hagler and his family got out of Newark as well.