A TikTok bucket prank gone wrong has landed a California woman in the hospital. It's the latest in a long line of similar TikTok challenge pranks to result in unintended consequences.
For those who may not have heard of the bucket prank (also known as the bucket challenge), it involves the prankers filming themselves inside a store and placing a bucket or shopping basket over the heads of unsuspecting shoppers to get their reactions. This is not to be confused with the ice bucket challenge of years gone by in which participants would douse themselves with a bucket of ice-cold water. As one might expect, this newest TikTok trend is controversial since the targets of the prank aren't always consenting.
The incident in question happened at a Target in Tustin, California on March 26. The target of this specific TikTok bucket prank, Lana Clay-Monaghan, is a 35-year-old mother of infant twins who suffers from epilepsy resulting from cancer. According to Clay-Monaghan, a group of teenage males put a bucket over her head while she was shopping. Clay-Monaghan said she panicked as she struggled to remove the object, triggering an epileptic event that caused her to eventually lose consciousness and pass out. She says that when she turned around and saw the teens, they had their cameras out and were laughing at her, and that that was the last thing she saw before collapsing. Lana was rushed to a nearby hospital and treated.
As for the teens, they were able to get away before they could be apprehended. The Target store in question has handed over security footage, and police are still working to identify the individuals involved. If they are found they are likely to be charged with assault and/or possibly other charges. It goes without saying that none of them have apparently posted their videos of the incident online. This is far from the first time a social media challenge has gone wrong. Similar challenges, such as the "Blackout Challenge" in which participants are challenged to hold their breaths until the point of passing out, have resulted in death. Fortunately, Clay-Monaghan was released from the hospital and is now okay, though she says the experience has been traumatic for her, and that she no longer feels comfortable shopping alone since the incident. However, she has also stated that she is trying to move on from the experience.
Lana Clay-Monaghan told reporters that she wants to get the word out about what happened to her because as she notes "It could happen to anyone." Clay-Monaghan says she wants people to talk to their kids about the bucket prank and other TikTok pranks like it, and says that it is not okay to do this to nonconsenting people.
Source: Dextero