CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — Late at night and into the early morning, people have been banging on homeowners' doors, waking them up, sometimes even leaving damage, and it's all part of an online TikTok challenge.
Detectives in Charlotte County have opened investigations to get to the bottom of these cases as they could turn into a more dangerous situations.
Julia Espinoso is one person who experienced it this week.
"It completely startled us and jumped us up out of bed," she said.
What you may know as ding-dong ditch, is now called the TikTok door knock trend. It's taken a more harmful approach, as people are not always ringing the doorbell, but rather bashing doors in and running.
"They're actually putting some of our citizens in fear," Captain John Heck Jr., with Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said.
He says the internet trend is reaching us here in Southwest Florida, and not only in Charlotte County. On Facebook, we found people reporting this throughout the region.
It may seem like all harmless fun or just a nuisance, but it's not.
"The worst part is obviously we have young adults and juveniles that are seeing these trends on social media and then they're going out and doing the same trend for either their friends or to get more followers," Captain Heck said.
In a state where people have the right to protect their property, there could be serious consequences, from criminal charges to death.
"In the process of doing that, they don't realize that they're committing a criminal act. We're really worried about them doing it at the wrong house and they could get hurt," Heck said.
Espinoso lives in Cape Coral and says the people who paid her house a visit pounded on the door three times. She was able to catch footage on a Ring doorbell and describes the person who did it as a shirtless young teen.
The people who do this typically run away before a homeowner can see what all of the ruckus is about.
"We just want to make sure that these young adults or even juveniles' parents are aware they're out at night and are doing these type of activities, as innocent as some of them seem to be, it could lead into bigger trouble for them," Captain Heck said.
