On Saturday, the Denver Zoo decided to close its doors early due to a scheduled teen “takeover” event that gained traction on TikTok. This incident is part of a concerning trend among teenagers, causing disturbances in public areas nationwide.
Zoo staff decided to shutter the park to prevent the so-called “takeover” before it could happen.
While the exact details of the anticipated event were unclear, officials were determined to prevent it from turning into a scenario reminiscent of other such events that have occurred across the country during the summer.
“We are unsure of the specific nature of this gathering, but similar events in other places have resulted in disruptions, damage, and vandalism to local businesses,” stated Jake Kubie, a spokesperson for the zoo, in a conversation with KUSA.
“We don’t believe we’re a target of anything. We haven’t received any information that suggests that there is gonna be any impact to us. We’re always leaning towards caution over everything else.”
Last weekend, one of the planned events took Denver’s Northfield Mall by storm as more than 300 unruly teenagers descended onto the property and started fighting each other following a call-out to meet at the shopping center on TikTok.
Following the early closure, zoo staff were still on high alert, but no one showed.
Still, other community advocates and police spent the rest of their Saturday afternoon patrolling around Denver’s City Park in the sweltering heat just to be extra cautious.
Across the country on the East Coast, Garden State teenagers haven’t been on their best behavior either.
In just one week, two separate TikTok-fueled pop-ups spurred hundreds of teens to shut down a mall and a carnival that were mere miles apart.
In Edison, New Jersey, more than 300 youth turned the Menlo Park Mall into their personal playground, forcing innocent shoppers to take shelter inside stores as fights started breaking out.
The following week, another takeover destroyed a carnival in a mall parking lot just 2.5 short miles away from the Edison site. The carnival had tried to impose an 18-and-up limit for after-hours, but the teenagers weren’t having it and started scaling fences to get inside.
