A North Bay Village family says their apartment door has been kicked open three separate times by teenagers chasing likes on a resurfacing TikTok trend, with the most recent incident happening shortly before 5 p.m. Monday near South Treasure Drive. Lorely Carpio, who is pregnant and lives with her husband and one other family member, says a teen kicked her locked door with enough force to knock it open before sprinting away, leaving her family badly shaken.
Carpio's husband ran outside and found what appeared to be a teenager fleeing the scene, according to WSVN 7News. The family reported the incident to North Bay Village police, who responded, took a report, and later spoke with the juvenile's parents, issuing them a warning, per Carpio's account to the station. She told the outlet this was the third time the prank has happened at their home, though the door-kicking has not caused serious property damage so far.
Teens Picked Random Doors Near a Nearby Park
Per Carpio, the group of teens involved has been picking random residential units near a park to target, kicking doors before running back to the park afterward. The stunt is part of a years-old prank that has regained notoriety on TikTok, in which people record themselves kicking unsuspecting residents' doors to music before fleeing, WSVN 7News reports.
North Bay Village Police Chief Carlos Noriega urged parents and community members to talk with their children about making responsible decisions, and said kids should not feel pressured or intimidated by their peers into taking part. Carpio echoed that message, urging parents to be more careful about what their children are doing, and said she hopes her account and the police warning will discourage teens from taking risks for a social media trend.
A Small Island Community With High-Density Housing
North Bay Village is a 0.84-square-mile municipality spread across three islands — Treasure Island, Harbor Island, and North Bay Island — connected by the John F. Kennedy Causeway between Miami and Miami Beach, according to Wikipedia. More than 60% of the village's total area is water. U.S. Census Bureau data cited by Point2Homes put the village's 2020 population at 8,159, with 58% of residents renting their homes — much of it in multi-family units on Harbor Island and eastern Treasure Island near South Treasure Drive, the same area where the Carpio family lives.
Florida Has Seen the Trend Turn Violent Before
The door-kicking prank has also cropped up outside South Florida, and it has not always ended with a warning. Near St. Augustine, authorities cautioned that the stunt can lead to deadly consequences, with a St. Johns County sheriff's deputy warning teens they could be shot by a homeowner who mistakes them for a burglar, according to News4JAX. Deputies there arrested three teenagers in November 2025 after they forcefully kicked in a stranger's front door, initially responding to what was reported as a burglary in progress before detaining the juveniles.
An earlier South Florida case shows just how far these confrontations can escalate. In Lighthouse Point, a 31-year-old firefighter chased a group of teens engaged in a late-night door-kicking and ding-dong-ditch prank and struck them with a baseball bat in November 2025, according to Local 10 News. He was later jailed and placed on administrative leave.
Florida Law Gives Homeowners Broad Legal Cover
The risk cuts both ways under Florida law. Florida Statute § 776.013 grants residents inside their homes no duty to retreat, along with a legal presumption of reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily harm if someone unlawfully and forcefully enters or tries to enter a dwelling, according to Rush & Frisco Law's analysis of the statute. That framework means a homeowner who reacts to a kicked-in door with force may have a strong self-defense claim, even as the teens involved could face criminal mischief charges under Florida Statute § 806.13 — penalties that scale from a second-degree misdemeanor for damage under $200 up to a third-degree felony carrying as much as five years in prison for damage exceeding $1,000, per Flaherty & Merrifield.
The trend traces back to October 2021, when TikTok users began recording themselves kicking or pounding twice on closed doors to the beat of Kesha's song Die Young before running off, according to Know Your Meme. It reportedly started in college dormitories before spreading into residential neighborhoods. The consequences of that spread have occasionally been fatal elsewhere in the country — in August 2025, an 11-year-old was shot and killed in Houston after a homeowner mistook late-night door pounding for a break-in, and the homeowner was subsequently charged with murder, per Police1.
Florida law enforcement has continued sounding the alarm as the trend resurfaces. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office and the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office issued renewed public warnings in mid-2026 cautioning teens that door-kicking challenges can lead to felony burglary charges or deadly self-defense responses from homeowners, including the possibility that residents may react with a firearm, according to WJXT News4JAX.
For now, the Carpio family's only recourse has been a police report and a warning delivered to the involved teen's parents. Whether that will be enough to stop the next kick remains to be seen in a community where, as Chief Noriega put it, the goal is getting kids to make responsible decisions before a prank turns into something far worse.
