In another example of how social media can get kids into trouble, there’s a disturbing trend going around on TikTok, daring teenagers to kick doors and run away. They call it “the door kick challenge.”
An apparent example of this phenomenon happened in a Hialeah apartment complex Thursday night. The security camera video shows a swarm of teenage boys, about a dozen, arriving on bicycles all at once before going on a rampage.
“And hit every single window and hit every door, went upstairs, hit the doors upstairs, broke windows and everything,” said Ana Rojas, a resident of the building, who told NBC6 it was crazy. “Yeah, which was out of nowhere because I’ve never heard that happening around here.”
There are broken windows, one apartment’s door frame is cracked, and a lot of nerves are seriously frazzled.
“Well, I believe it was really scary because they hit every single window, they hit on doors, and there’s children here, so that’s pretty scary for every family,” Rojas said.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office released a video of a “door kick challenge” incident in which deputies arrested several teenagers. The 911 call is typical.
“911, where is your emergency?”
“Sweet Brier Branch Lane, someone just tried to kick in our front door,” the homeowner answers.
“There hasn’t been any reported here in the city of Miami, I think that this is something that might be under-reported because victims might feel like, why bother the police for something this simple,” said Officer Mike Vega from the Miami Police Department.
The Hialeah incident lasted only about one minute before the boys took off on their bikes, but that’s enough time to get in serious trouble. Vega says kids are not thinking about the potential consequences.
“When these kids are doing this, they think it’s funny, a fun game for them, but you don’t know the condition of the person that is inside that house, you don’t know what they’re going through, they hear this knocking at the house, they have a gun with them, they’re gonna come out with their guns at hand,” Vega said.
“My husband was gonna open the door with our gun but he did not,” the woman in the 911 call from St. John’s County said, which illustrates Vega’s point.
“Talk to the kids, tell ‘em, hey, this could be a crime, and parents, talk to your kids and tell ‘em the seriousness of committing this challenge that they’re calling on TikTok,” the veteran Miami Police officer said.
In another part of the video from the St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office, you see a deputy talking to the boys he has just arrested on his body-worn camera.
“What the hell are you guys doing out here acting like this? You guys want to get shot by a homeowner when you kick their front door and they think you’re breaking in to kill them?” he said.