Shresht Poddar wrote that the incident occurred at 2:30 am when most of the residents were asleep
In a disturbing turn of events, the idea of fun for two young girls in Maharashtra’s Mumbai became the cause of trouble for many occupants of a residential apartment. In a video going viral on the internet, the girls can be seen locking the doors of flats in the building from outside before ringing the doorbells, all while documenting their act in the dead of the night.
The girls’ act seems to be inspired by the internet’s ‘Door Knock’ prank, which encourages teens to bang or kick on a door in the middle of the night.
Sharing the CCTV footage of the act on X, social media user Shresht Poddar wrote that the incident occurred at 2:30 am when most of the residents were asleep.
Bringing the authorities’ attention to the act, Mr Poddar noted that most residents of his society are senior citizens.
“2.30 am last night. 2 young, educated girls entered & recorded themselves trying to lock the doors & ring the bells of houses multiple times, in my building, which has mostly 55+ & senior residents, & a history of previous incidents. They knew CCTVs were present,” he wrote.
In a subsequent tweet, Mr Poddar mentioned that his building has had multiple robbery attempts and murders in the past, he wrote, “Our bldg is an old G+2 one. Last few years, our bldg & Juhu Scheme have had multiple robbery attempts, electrical fires & even murders in the vicinity. The building folk have had to run out into the compound in the middle of the night, multiple times.”
Narrating the incident, Mr Poddar further wrote, “Loud disturbance at night disturbs & scares us. We used to have a security guard. Last night at 2.30 am, multiple doorbells freaked my mum and me out. CCTV had a memory issue so it was ‘offline’. No one could be seen from the windows.”
Mr Poddar fixed the CCTV in the morning and to his surprise there were 2 girls, seemingly drunk, spotting the CCTV, yet they proceeded to go upstairs, check name plates, try & latch the doors from out, and continuously ring on doors, he said in a tweet.
Mr Poddar wrote, “There are mostly older people & sr. citizens in the building. Normally, I would have ignored this. However, this girl is proudly recording herself despite acknowledging the cameras. I’m pretty sure they thought this was super cool.” He added, “If someone can tell me how I can report this and get connected to these two girls, so I congratulate them for being so, so cool, I would be highly obliged. Thank you.”
Since being shared, the post has accumulated more than 1 lakh views with an array of comments from netizens.
A user wrote, “This could be disastrous. If there happens to be some fire then the residents would find themselves trapped with no way to save themselves. By the time help reached, it would have been too late.
Needs to be reported, as they have risked the lives of the residents of the building.”
Another user commented, “Warn the girls, they need to know that this cannot repeat.”
“Keep a building alarm or siren, for any suspicious activity just activate the siren either from your home or neighbouring homes,” the third user suggested.
“The fourth user pointed out that the act is allegedly part of a prank, “Apparently it is called “Ding Dong Ditch” I learnt from the kids in my apartment. Kids these days… uh”
“Such a disgrace. Also, some comments here are in poor taste. I can’t imagine how scared, angry or confused the senior citizens residents would be. Praying for swift action plz,” the fifth user wrote.
