{"id":139737,"date":"2026-02-20T07:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139737\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:23:07","slug":"nyc-teens-charged-in-queensboro-bridge-tiktok-stunt-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139737\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC teens charged in Queensboro bridge TikTok stunt fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two teens have been charged in connection with a foolish TikTok stunt that caused a 16-year-old boy to plummet 50 feet <\/a>and become trapped inside a shaft on the Queensboro Bridge, as the victim\u2019s loved ones alleged his so-called friends left him there to die.<\/p>\n

A 14-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested and charged for their alleged roles in the boneheaded stunt gone wrong on Monday evening, an NYPD spokesperson said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The younger teen has been charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing, and the older boy with criminal trespassing, cops said.<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy dangles off the Queensboro Bridge after falling 50 feet down during a TikTok stunt on Feb. 16, 2026. CITIZEN<\/p>\n

The become trapped inside a shaft on the Queensboro Bridge during the social media stunt. Citizen app<\/p>\n

Officers responded to a 911 call on the Queens end of the East River bridge around 5:45 p.m. Monday and found the 16-year-old from Lynbrook, Long Island stuck inside the shaft, police said.<\/p>\n

Sources told The Post the boy was filming a stunt to post on TikTok when he fell.<\/p>\n

Roughly 75 first responders and 10 pieces of apparatus were needed to rescue the boy, FDNY Deputy Chief Nicholas Corrado\u00a0said at a press briefing at the scene<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell, where he was listed in critical but stable condition, police said.<\/p>\n

An online petition urging for the stunt to be investigated alleged that two of the teen\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d took videos of the boy, identified as \u201cFrankie,\u201d as he screamed their names \u201cin agony\u201d and sent them to people online.<\/p>\n

Officers responded to a 911 call on the Queens end of the East River bridge around 5:45 p.m. Monday and found the 16-year-old from Lynbrook, Long Island stuck inside the shaft, police said. @nycemergencymgt<\/p>\n

Roughly 75 first responders and 10 pieces of apparatus were needed to rescue the boy. @nycemergencymgt<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody deserves to be abandoned and left to die during the worst and most traumatic moment of their life,\u201d the\u00a0Change.org\u00a0petition said.<\/p>\n

The petition, which has over 1,000 signatures, alleged that the two pals managed to take the wounded teen\u2019s cell phone to prevent him from calling emergency services and fled the scene to their homes \u2014 leaving the boy \u201cinside the bridge shaft suffering and dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple hours later, an anonymous woman who saw the video contacted authorities,\u201d the petition added. \u201cThe FDNY had to search each shaftway of the Queensboro Bridge until they found Frankie\u2019s shoe and blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Citizen App<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe for Frankie\u2019s recovery costs said the teen was hypothermic and lost a lot of blood during the terrifying fall, and \u201cnow faces a long road of surgeries, recovery, and rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis survival is nothing short of a miracle,\u201d the fundraiser for his family said.<\/p>\n

TikTok has come\u00a0under attack in recent years<\/a>\u00a0for allowing a string of possibly dangerous stunts to be widely shared and remain on the social media platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two teens have been charged in connection with a foolish TikTok stunt that caused a 16-year-old boy to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[318,57,9,56,63,65,64,22492,1095,9740,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-139737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-freak-accidents","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-queensboro-bridge","16":"tag-reckless-endangerment","17":"tag-tiktok","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}