A mail carrier accidentally interrupted a TikTok video being filmed by two friends in Birmingham, Alabama, and inadvertently caused the video to go viral.
Alexis Dinga and Collins Kitchens are best friends who live across from each other. When Dinga’s mom sent her over to Kitchens’ house to get an onion the other night, the two friends ended up goofing around and recording for TikTok.
Dinga’s phone was placed on a mailbox across the street and that’s how mail carrier Annette Desmond literally came into the picture.
“We were just doing the dance over and over again, and we saw her pull up,” Dinga told BuzzFeed News.
“She completely made it her own. She was so excited. She stole the show!”
Desmond drove back around to ask if she had interrupted a TikTok video they were shooting but Dinga ended up posting the video because she found it so good. Others agreed because it soon went viral with 28 million views and counting.
Desmond, a US Postal Service employee since 1989, didn’t use TikTok but her family members do and that’s how she found out that night that she had become a viral hit.
“My older niece sent me a text: ‘What in the world is your *ss doing on TikTok?'” Desmond told BuzzFeed News. “At that point, I knew that I’m out there on TikTok.”
The next day, Desmond again encountered the two friends and they let her know how viral she had become.
“She knew that it had kind of gone viral, but she didn’t know the extent to which it had gone viral,” said Dinga.
“Me and Collins were like, OK, maybe she’ll want to be in one with us after we show her how this has blown up.”
A follow-up video was made, this time featuring the three of them dancing.
“I’m too old to keep up, but it was fine. I enjoyed it,” said Desmond, laughing.
“They were such sweet girls.”
The girls asked Desmond if they could gift her with something and she said the only thing she wanted was more gloves due to the difficulty in getting protective equipment. They gave her a whole box with a small note.
“I’m so grateful. I’m wearing them right now,” said Desmond.
Desmond expected all of it to blow over quickly but the views and comments just kept pouring in. While she was on her route and being interviewed on the phone, a local resident even approached and asked to have a video taken with her.
But while it has been fun, Desmond is more concerned about people remembering the importance of the Postal Service and its workers. The White House rejected a funding bailout for the USPS last month.
“Right now we’re in the fight of our lives. We are hoping and we’re praying and we’re writing our congressmen and everything. It would be a shame for the Postal Service to no longer exist,” said Desmond. “I love my people. I love my job. I’m just wondering come September if I’m even going to have a job.”
Replaced!