Forget the old ding-dong ditch routine.
A new wave of TikTok-style pranks appears to be taking a far more aggressive turn — and homeowners are paying the price.
On Friday night in San Diego, a hooded person walked up to a home and repeatedly kicked the front door, leaving behind a damaged frame, cracked plaster and repairs the homeowner says could top $2,000.
Tracy Van De Walker said the unsettling incident happened shortly after 10 p.m. at her Ocean Beach home on Newport Avenue.
Her husband had been sleeping when the noise suddenly jolted him awake.
“He just heard a loud noise, pounding,” Van De Walker told ABC 10.
Home surveillance footage shows the hooded figure walking toward the property, with several bicycles visible behind him.
The video appears to show him turning around, raising a leg and kicking the front door multiple times before sprinting 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.
