The Tiktok trend “heartbeat challenge” has become a problem to the neighborhood, police say.
Police are alerting schools, parents, and community members of this potentially-dangerous challenge seen on TikTok which encourages people to kick the doors of their neighbor’s homes.
This challenge that started in college dorm rooms is spreading and residents aren’t happy about the outcome. Tiktok is now being blamed for starting this trend that is now becoming a real-life nuisance.
To the tune of “Die Young” sung by Kesha, people are being dared to perform inappropriate actions that involve kicking and pounding their neighbor’s doors with their fists or feet, after the act, they will run away as fast as possible to avoid getting caught, it’s like a “ding-dong ditch” for the digital age.
Most of the videos circulating online take place in dorm halls, but there have been enough instances of frightened homeowners in various neighborhoods that police had to step in and take action in some video clips, people can see how doors are kicked and pounded so hard by the pranksters that you can almost see it open because of the force.
On November 30, 2021, Jennifer Pritchard, from Petaluma Police Department in Petaluma, California said on Fox News that the said prank presents a real danger to homeowners who aren’t familiar with the trend.
If someone thinks that their doors are being kicked down, it could become “a real life-or-death situation”. Pritchard said those participating in the door-kicking challenge “don’t know which door” they’re about to kick.
TikTok has not yet responded to Fox News’ request for comment. In September, the said company told Fox News it does not allow content that “promotes or enables criminal activities” as written in the site’s Community Guidelines.
TikTok’s statement was about a 15-year-old Florida student who had been arrested for stealing school property as part of the “devious licks” challenge. The teen’s arrest was made after police located a video of the crime.
A 19-year-old student at the University of Central Florida said he first saw the trend about a month ago. Marien posted his Tiktok video joking about the challenge but never personally saw it occur on his campus. She told Fox News via email that “It is understandable someone can get in trouble for this trend if done over the top.”
Pritchard confirmed the door kicking trend has moved into the neighborhood when they received two 911 calls recently coming in from residents in the Petaluma area, surveillance video from one home showed a door being kicked, which now needs hundreds of dollars in repairs, according to Pritchard.
She said her department’s goal is to educate the public on these challenges and encourage parents and teachers to caution kids about the legal ramifications. She explained: “There are felonies or misdemeanors involved when there’s property damage.”
“We don’t want these consequences to occur, the students sometimes don’t have the life experience to think about that and we aren’t putting them down for it…we are just trying to be preemptive, positive, and thoughtful in our message so everyone involved understands what’s going on and are responsible for their safety,” she added.
Last week, the Lincoln Police Department received four separate complaints from residents saying their doors were kicked and a video surveillance showed a group of individuals driving off in a dark-colored sedan after the incident.
A woman named Denise Marrs experienced “absolute terror” while she was watching tv with her family and heard someone kicking on the door. She said: “It was terrifying. I mean I can’t even express how scary it was.”
Her husband Doug said he immediately went into “fight mode” until they looked back on their doorbell footage and realized the whole thing might have been a prank.
Doug said: “We used to do a doorbell ditch type of thing, but I think this is way worse than that. It’s not funny. You could have gotten hurt, we could have gotten hurt, some other houses… you probably would have gotten hurt.”
Baton Rouge, a child in Louisiana, was arrested in November and accused of doing the door-kicking challenge on multiple homes in one neighborhood, one of the neighbors said her husband was at home recovering from open-heart surgery when the child kicked their door.
A pastor’s front door was also damaged in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, by a person doing the challenge at his home. Rev. Craig Gommer told the news outlet: “My initial reaction was anger and frustration.”
“But since then, it has been about our community and our neighbors here in the city and wondering if someone else has experienced this or other kinds of property damage that come with pranks,” he added.
Authorities said that taking part in the TikTok challenge can be dangerous and could result in legal repercussions, which include facing trespassing, property damage, vandalism, or breaking and entering charges.