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Insets: Kaine Villareal and Lane Burch (Kyle Police Department). Background: Negley Elementary School in Kyle, Texas (Google Maps).
A twisted TikTok prank, in which a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old from Texas followed elementary school students home from school and asked if they “wanted to be kidnapped,” has landed the two teens behind bars on charges of making terroristic threats, police say.
Kaine Villareal and Lane Burch, both of Kyle, were caught Wednesday following a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old as they walked home from Negley Elementary School that afternoon at around 3:20 p.m., according to the Kyle Police Department.
The pair approached the two kids and asked if they “wanted to be kidnapped” as part of a “prank” for social media, according to police.
“The children immediately contacted their parents, who notified the Kyle Police Department,” KPD said in a press release. “Upon arrival, the suspects told officers that they were repeating a TikTok prank.”
While their TikTok profiles appear to be private and locked, Villareal can be seen on X and sports websites as he was a baseball player, wrestler and runner in high school.
The duo’s arrest marks the third time in roughly a month that a TikTok prank has landed someone in hot water and charged.
Charles Smith, a famous TikToker known as Wolfie Kahletti — who calls himself a “troll” and “supreme villain,” with over 14 million likes and 300,000 people following him — is facing criminal charges in Arizona for allegedly using a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug spray to film a social media “prank” video on Dec. 19, during which he sprayed the pesticide on vegetables, fruit and rotisserie chickens that were available for purchase.
“Smith filmed his face, the pesticide can, and the act of spraying,” the Mesa Police Department said in a press release. “He later posted the video online.”
Smith is facing a felony count of introducing poison and misdemeanor criminal damage, endangerment and theft charges for the incident.
More from Law&Crime: Kids playing ‘ding-dong ditch’ prank shot at, held at gunpoint by man on lifetime GPS monitoring for statutory rape: Docs
Police in Port Author, Texas, say they believe a 25-year-old man put a 3-month-old in danger when he used the baby to wipe snow off a car as part of a stunt to go viral on TikTok.
After observing the video online, the Port Arthur Police Department and Child Protective Services started investigating the incident, according to local ABC and NBC affiliate KBMT. Police told the station they were looking to obtain an arrest warrant for child endangerment through the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.
“They are looking for clicks,” Port Arthur Police Chief Tim Duriso told KMBT.