The statute of limitations has long run out, so I can confess that when I was a teenager I took part in my fair share of shenanigans, including tee-peeing a couple of houses and even egging a car. I was on the receiving end of a couple of incidents as well; the vinyl top of my ’73 Dodge Dart never did look the same after some unknown classmates slapped Pillsbury biscuit dough on it and let it bake in the morning sun of a hot August morning in Oklahoma.
Kids do dumb things. That’s just a fact of life, and a tale as old as time itself. But the “Door Kick” challenge that’s been making the rounds on Tik Tok isn’t just stupid. It’s downright dangerous.
Home surveillance footage shows a group of masked California youngsters partaking in the “Door Kick Challenge,” where pranksters run up to a stranger’s home and kick the front door as hard as they can before rushing away, according to the Elk Grove Police Department.
The community of Elk Grove – located roughly 15 miles from Sacramento – has seen at least eight reported incidents and five arrests over the past month, CBS News Sacramento reported.
Last week, two 13-year-olds were arrested after allegedly causing more than $680 in damage to a homeowner’s front door, according to authorities. Additionally, three juveniles were taken into custody earlier this month for their alleged involvement in the prank.
Another incident left a homeowner with $900 worth of damage to their doorframe, the outlet reported. Any crime exceeding $950 in damages could reportedly result in felony charges, with parents on the hook for paying the cost of their child’s actions.
“Somebody could come out with a gun, and you could never know, these kids could be dead just for a stupid prank,” Ronnie Monroe told CBS13.
Monroe reportedly had his garage door kicked in by pranksters in two separate incidents in September, with both pranks taking place in the early morning hours.
If someone tries to kick in your door in the middle of the night, it’s not unreasonable to think that you’ve become the target of burglars or home invaders, and it’s not irrational to grab a gun and defend yourself from your assailant.
What is meant to be a stupid prank isn’t always going to be received that way, and while any homeowner who shoots through a closed door at someone they believe is trying to get inside could still face charges (as we’ve recently seen in Indiana), it’s also entirely possible that police and prosecutors could decide that the homeowner had a legitimate reason to fear for their lives.
“Imagine being in your home at 2 in the morning, and you are getting these kicking sounds,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told FOX35. “And in Florida, under the ‘stand your ground’ [law] you are coming out with your gun. Somebody is going to get killed – this isn’t funny.”
The property damage alone makes this Tik Tok challenge supremely stupid, but the fact that anyone participating in this stunt is essentially acting like a home invader takes the idiocy to a whole new level. My kids are old enough that I’m not worried about any of them trying to do the Door Kick challenge, but sadly, it’s not a bad idea for parents of tweens and teens to educate their offspring about the dangers of following the social media herd and engaging in this risky business.
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