United States Around 12:30 AM on October 25, 2003, a teen was playing "ding dong ditch" in front of Jay Steven Levin's home in
Boca Raton,
Florida. Levin armed himself, went outside, and fatally shot the boy in the back as he tried to flee. Levin claimed self-defense. This tragedy sparked debates on the proportionality of responses to acts perceived as harmless pranks. On 13 June 2011, Michael Bishop, a 56-year-old man, shot at a group of children playing ding dong ditch at his house in
Louisville, Kentucky. A 12-year-old boy was hit in the back with a shotgun blast and was taken to
Kosair Children's Hospital "with what police call non-life-threatening injuries". The shooter was charged with attempted murder. including a pardon for Bishop. In Oklahoma, 14-year-old Cole Peyton was shot in the back and arm while playing "ding dong ditch" in the early hours of New Year's Day of 2016. Dean Taylor, a 63-year-old coach and former
San Francisco Police Department officer, was arrested following an incident involving an 11-year-old boy who rang his doorbell in
San Rafael, California on 12 February 2021. After two boys rang his door and ran, Taylor chased the boys in a vehicle, cut off one of the youths and emerged from the car. Then he allegedly grabbed one 11-year-old boy by the neck, pushed him to the ground and forced him into his vehicle. He drove the terrified boy around the block, and allegedly told the boy that he would "put a bullet in his head" if the prank happened again. He dropped the boy off near Point San Pedro Road and Loch Lomond Drive, and police were called. Taylor faces felony charges including kidnapping, making criminal threats,
false imprisonment, battery and child endangerment. A California man, Anurag Chandra, 42, faced several murder charges for his role in a crash on Temescal Canyon Road on 24 January 2020. A group of six teenage boys drove to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Road in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, after one of them had been dared. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the
2002 Prius that they were riding in, and the group took off. Chandra, who lives at the home, chased after them in his
2019 Infiniti Q50. His car rammed into the back of the Prius, causing it to veer off the road and into a tree. Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16-year-old passengers, were killed in the crash. The 18-year-old driver and two other boys, ages 13 and 14, were injured but survived. In 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A 27-year-old man of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was charged on in May 2025 with second degree-murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony after fatally shooting an 18-year-old who was filming a ding dong ditch prank for
TikTok along with two younger friends. The three teenagers had already knocked on a few doors in a neighborhood unfamiliar to them when they were shot by Tyler Chase Butler while running away. Two of them were wounded, one of them sustaining minor injuries while the other later died. In an
affidavit, the juvenile advised: "It's something that people are doing to put on TikTok." On August 30, 2025 an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in the east area of
Houston after taking part in the prank.
Canada In 2023, On
Vancouver Island, Owen May took extreme measures to catch teens playing "Nicky Nicky Nine Doors" at his home in Courtenay,
British Columbia. May, a fisherman, set up a fishing line trap outside his door. One night, a teen got caught in the trap, leading to a confrontation between May, his partner, and the teen. Both parties required medical attention. In July 2023, in the city of
Saguenay,
Quebec, a couple pursued teenagers who were playing "ring and run". After being alerted by the youths' screams, the couple, with no prior criminal record, threatened one of the teenagers with a knife and made death threats. They were arrested by the police for armed threats. On October 2, 2024, Stéphanie Borel, a woman from
Longueuil, Quebec, allegedly poured boiling water on a young boy. Two days after the event, she called the authorities, claiming she had acted in response to repeated "ding dong ditch" pranks at her home.
Australia On 6 January 2025, on the Gold Coast, a 12-year-old boy on an e-bike was hit by a car driven by a 58-year-old man, who then got out of his car and began calling the boy's e-bike "completely illegal". The man was later identified as Howard Wright, an Australian bar owner, who initially claimed that the boy rode out in front of him. The boy was wearing a helmet-mounted camera, which recorded a passerby saying "he's just a kid", with Wright responding "Sorry? I know he is. They [the boy and his friends] are ringing my doorbell every day", followed by "They are terrorising this neighbourhood". Wright was given a traffic infringement notice for driving without care and attention and a fine.
Other countries In 2018, the governments of India and Pakistan accused each other's diplomats of ringing the doorbells of the other government senior diplomatic staff at 3am and then running away. == See also ==