WINTER PARK, Fla. — A Winter Park family is dealing with thousands of dollars’ worth of damage and a major headache after they say their home was vandalized.
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The incident happened just this past week. “It was upsetting, it was very frightening, it caused a lot of damage,” said Lola Kelly, the homeowner, as she showed the footprints left on her front door. “We jumped up from the porch, my husband came inside, and both our front doors were wide open, had been kicked open.”
The incident happened just around 9 p.m. on Nov. 15.
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Kelly said nothing was stolen from her home, and blames a new TikTok trend - and teenagers – for the trouble.
“My husband ran outside, and as he ran outside, the police were starting to come because they were close by. And we realized it was kids playing a joke,” said Kelly. “The police explained to us that there is a TikTok challenge that’s going around that kids are, instead of doing dingdong ditch, they are doing dingdong kick your door as hard as they can.”
Channel 9 obtained the offense report from that night. In it, the witnesses described hearing “loud noise from the front of their home and heard what appeared to be lots of laughing.” The suspects then take off in an unknown vehicle.
Surveillance footage from a nearby home from the same night shows two people rushing toward a home, and when the lights go on, they run away in a car. A quick search on TikTok and it is easy to find dozens of videos showing the same pattern – a teen runs to the door, kicks it, and runs away.
Residents in Jacksonville have also reported the same problem, just a couple of months ago.
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Kelly is a gun owner, and she said the trend is extremely dangerous, especially for teens.
“I want parents to talk to their kids about this,” said Kelly. “I’m really concerned for kids’ safety - somebody is going to get shot! I would have to live with myself had I shot one of those kids knowing that it was not a break-in; it was just kids playing a joke.”
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office is leading this investigation, and it is following multiple leads into the case. Investigators are still trying to track down the vehicle used during the incident, and so far, no one has been arrested.
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