‘What the heck’s going on?’ Bizarre social media challenge prompts warnings from police across Canada

A Ring doorbell camera is seen installed outside a home in Wolcott, Conn., on July 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

It started as a harmless prank by teenagers but a homeowner in Nanaimo, B.C., says it escalated into property damage, harassment and threats against the lives of his family members.

Marty Peters says his family is a victim of a social media trend that involves aggressively kicking the doors of strangers’ homes, which has police across Canada warning about the potential for dangerous consequences.

“We had some weird knocking on the door and it was like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ And then nobody was there. And it just kind of escalated from there,” Peters said in an interview.

Police in Nanaimo issued a statement this week after receiving multiple reports from fearful and frustrated homeowners, who say groups of teenagers are pounding on their doors late at night and then running away.

Across Canada, police departments are issuing warnings about similar incidents, seemingly related to the online “door-kick challenge,” which has participants filming their exploits for social media clout.

Peters said the knocking started last August but quickly grew from late-night knocks to heavy bangs and kicks, the force of which created a split around the deadbolts on his door.

By March, the kicking was happening multiple times per week, usually around 11 p.m. In one instance, Peters’ terrified eight-year-old granddaughter thought people were breaking into the house.

When Peters and his wife confronted some of the teens near their home, he said they threatened to kill her.

Kylie Smallenberg was renting a house in Nanaimo last year when she heard a loud bang late one night.

“We honestly thought a car had hit a power pole or something,” she said.

But doorbell footage showed their door had been kicked by teenagers wearing hoodies and balaclavas, and a post to a local Facebook group confirmed Smallenberg and her husband were likely victims of the social media challenge.

The force of the impact cracked almost the entire length of the door, Smallenberg said.

“I felt very unsafe.”

Reserve Const. Gary O’Brien with the Nanaimo RCMP said the door-kick challenge has posed an issue for police since early 2025.

The suspects reportedly caused thousands of dollars in damage and mostly target homes in the Departure Bay neighbourhood, O’Brien said in an interview.

He said that while police haven’t identified any of the recent suspects by name, most appear to be teenagers from Wellington Secondary School in Nanaimo, and police are working with the school and its liaison officers to identify them.

O’Brien added that police haven’t laid any charges against teenagers involved in past instances of door kicking, and those who they spoke to made it clear their aim was social media glory.

“They want to get their likes and people think it’s cool, and they don’t realize it’s a criminal offence, what they’re doing,” he said.

Besides the consequences to participants, some door-kicking challenges and similar doorbell pranks have turned violent.

In the United States, an 11-year-old boy was fatally shot in the back after playing a doorbell prank.

A Quebec woman who scalded a 10-year-old boy with boiling water over a similar incident was sentenced to 27 months in prison in January.

In Abbotsford, B.C., an 86-year-old man received a one-year driving ban after running into two teens with his vehicle who were playing a doorbell prank.

And in 2023, a Courtenay, B.C., couple used trip wire to take down a girl doing the door-kick challenge at their home, leading to a physical confrontation.

Peters said his older neighbours have injured themselves chasing after door-kickers, and he’s heard from several people who are afraid in their own homes.

Others, though, are taking measures into their own hands by keeping baseball bats and other items at their front doors for protection, he said.

“These kids are putting themselves at risk too, to get injured,” Peters said.

This report by Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press, was first published June 27, 2026.