SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A hooded figure caught on surveillance video kicking a front door multiple times has left an Ocean Beach homeowner fearing more than $2,000 in repairs.<\/p>\n
Tracy Van De Walker says the incident happened Friday night, just past 10 p.m., at her home on Newport Avenue. Her husband was startled out of his sleep by the noise.<\/p>\n
“He just heard a loud noise, pounding,” Van De Walker said.<\/p>\n
Surveillance video shows the sequence of events. With several bikes visible in the background, a hooded figure approaches her front door, turns around, raises a leg, and appears to kick the door several times before running off. The kicks caused damage up and down the door frame, with plaster crumbling at the scene.<\/p>\n
“When somebody compromises the security of your house, it’s very disturbing and alarming,\u201d Van De Walker said. “I’m already thinking over $2,000 in damage.”<\/p>\n
The incident is the latest in a series of escalating ding-dong-ditch pranks tied to TikTok challenges that I have been covering since 2023. Previous incidents have included a door being kicked, e-bikes ramming doors, and in 2024, someone setting off a fireworks display in Coronado before ringing a doorbell. Last October, video captured a vandal kicking in a door in Lemon Grove while someone else filmed it.<\/p>\n
“My heart dropped because, was someone in the house?” Lemon Grove resident Amber Lewis said October 2025.<\/p>\n
One night after the initial vandalism at her Ocean Beach home, past 10 p.m., Van De Walker was home when she heard pounding at the door again.<\/p>\n
When I asked if she chased after them, Van De Walker confirmed she did.<\/p>\n
“I chased them down the street,” Van De Walker said.<\/p>\n
Van De Walker says she caught up to three high-school-age suspects, who were wearing pajama bottoms and no shirts, before they got away.<\/p>\n
“Few choice words as I was running towards them,” Van De Walker said.<\/p>\n
Van De Walker says she has filed a police report. She says the social-media-fueled prank is no laughing matter.<\/p>\n
“Disgusting. It’s gotten out of control,” Van De Walker said. “Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to knock on the wrong door. These teens need to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A hooded figure caught on surveillance video kicking a front door multiple times has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,106113,163175,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1022740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-ding-dong-ditch","tag-ebike","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117155121302324496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}