Fla. Teens Charged With Felony After Kicking Down Door in Ding Dong Ditch Prank

The Orlando’s sherriff’s division is warning mother and father that so-called innocent pranks may end in felony fees and even dying after two teenagers kicked on the flawed door. What began off as a easy TikTok pattern ended with a stranger’s door being knocked off the hinges, and based on Florida’s “Stand Your Floor” regulation, the incident may’ve taken a lethal flip.

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It began when two teenagers, Jeffery Merthie, 15, and Zahmarii Reddick, 13, had been noticed on ring digicam footage approaching a stranger’s home in a DeBary, Fla. neighborhood, based on the Volusia Sheriff’s Workplace. Late on Monday (July 7) night, the 2 determined to play “ding dong ditch” and discovered a tough lesson in response.

“Ding dong ditch,” though annoying when you’re on the receiving finish, is a widely known prank the place somebody rings the doorbell and runs away earlier than the home-owner may catch who did it. However Merthie and Reddick took the prank to a different degree when as an alternative of merely knocking on doorways, they began kicking them in.

The pattern is viral on TikTok, however sadly for Merthie and Reddick, their tried prank was all caught on digicam. Within the footage, each teenagers flip round as they stomp on the stranger’s entrance door. After about three kicks, they bolt from the scene, however little did they know, the door was kicked proper off its hinges.

The house proprietor referred to as the police, who quickly caught as much as Merthie and one other unnamed teen. “You go forward and put your arms behind your again,” the officer mentioned pointing to Merthie. When the third teen requested what they did flawed, the officer responded, “You [Merthie] and one other feminine… are in crystal clear digicam strolling as much as any person’s home. I imply the digicam is crystal clear. These shorts are very distinct,” the officer mentioned referring to Merthie’s colourful shorts, which he wore in the course of the crime.

Police arrested Merthie and shortly went to Reddick’s home the place they discovered the woman hiding in her mom’s attic. “And, let me inform you, mother was livid along with her daughter after deputies informed her what she had been as much as,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote in a Fb put up.

Reddick was shortly arrested, and as officers walked her from the home, you possibly can hear her mom yelling within the again, “By no means come again to my home once more! Let me inform you one thing, do not ever play with me once more!” The emotional mom continued, “You wish to come to my home and disrespect my home? After every thing I have been by?”

The sheriff added to the assertion, “Dad and mom, use this as a reminder to TALK along with your youngsters that this problem shouldn’t be innocent and is the dumbest technique to find yourself with a felony cost or useless.”

Within the state of Florida, the infamous “Stand Your Floor” regulation handed in 2005 offers people the suitable to make use of lethal power in self-defense with out consequence. This regulation made nationwide information after George Zimmerman used it as his protection for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.

Each teenagers had been taken into custody and charged with felony housebreaking, in accordance to Each day Mail. Due to their ages, it is unclear if they are going to be charged as adults.

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