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Forget ding-dong ditch.
TikTok pranksters have apparently decided homeowners deserve a full-contact version.
A hooded figure showed up at a San Diego home Friday night and repeatedly kicked the front door, leaving the homeowner with a damaged door frame, crumbling plaster and a potential repair bill of more than $2,000.
Tracy Van De Walker said the bizarre visitor arrived at her Ocean Beach home on Newport Avenue shortly after 10 p.m.
Her husband was asleep when the racket started.
“He just heard a loud noise, pounding,” Van De Walker told ABC 10.
Surveillance video shows the hooded figure approaching the house, with several bikes visible in the background.
He turns around, lifts his leg and appears to deliver several kicks to the front door before running away.
The door frame took the beating, with plaster crumbling around the entrance.
“When somebody compromises the security of your house, it’s very disturbing and alarming,” she said. “I’m already thinking over $2,000 in damage.”
The stunt is part of the so-called “Door Kick Challenge,” an increasingly aggressive spin on the classic ding-dong-ditch prank that has circulated on TikTok and other platforms.
Similar incidents have been popping up since 2023.
Previous stunts have involved kicking doors and using e-bikes to ram them.
In 2024, someone in Coronado added fireworks to the recipe, setting off a display before ringing a doorbell.
Then last October, video captured a vandal kicking in a door in Lemon Grove while another person filmed the whole thing.
Now Ocean Beach has joined the dubious club.
For Van De Walker, the joke comes with a very unfunny price tag and a front door that may need a serious little intervention.
English (US)