SAN ANTONIO — Police are warning people not to participate in a dangerous prank. Just before midnight on Friday, a person wearing a ski mask ran up to a home in the Elm Creek neighborhood and began banging on the front door, before running away.
The homeowner didn’t want to be publicly identified, but said the noise sounded like gunshots.
“My glass is so thick, it sounds like gunshots from the inside,” she said. “I quickly came around the table and started yelling, ‘shots, shots, shots!’ I was trying to get on the Ring camera, but the video had lapsed. After a few minutes went by, we went outside and checked the house. We didn’t see anything, but we saw young men walking by and laughing. We said, ‘Did you hear the shots?’ They said, ‘Oh no, we are counting our macros.’”
The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) said officers responded to reports of shots fired but found no evidence of a weapon being used. When the homeowner was finally able to review her Ring camera footage, she was shocked to see a masked person pounding on her door.
“We had a 3-year-old granddaughter inside,” she said. “It’s all fun and games with the ‘Ding Dong Ditch’ but not with a ski mask. When you scare people like that, not all people are going to react the same; they are going to go running out with guns or something. Someone could mistake them for a home invader.”
Ring video shows the Elm Creek visitor apparently filming the incident.
KENS 5 recently covered the viral ‘Door Kick' challenge on TikTok where children kick doors as hard as possible and take off.
While it’s not illegal, SAPD says wearing a ski mask and knocking on someone’s door late at night could lead the homeowner to believe the visitor has bad intentions. That’s why parents are encouraged to talk to their children and monitor their social media activity.