SAVANNAH, Ga. () – Reports of the age-old prank known as “ding-dong ditching” are increasing among neighbors and on social media, especially in the Islands communities.

We took the chatter to area law enforcement, who told us it should not be a worry.

“I just want everyone to know it’s not a trend here, but you see a lot of it on social media,” said Sgt. Barry Lewis with the Savannah Police Department’s (SPD) Community Engagement. 

Even though ding-dong ditching could be considered trespassing, Sgt. Lewis vehemently stressed to not react physically and in pursuit.

“We don’t want people going out chasing after folks, even shooting at folks,” he said. “You just you can’t do that. Obviously, we want to let you know that you can protect your property and protect yourself, but to go out and harm somebody because they knocked on your door is not what we advise.”

He said if it does become a nuisance to call the police and do not open your door.

“You are not obligated to open up your door to anyone. It is your home, it is your safe haven, and we recommend that you don’t open the door.”
He also said offered another piece of advice, something he calls hard targeting which is preventing the problem before it happens by installing lights or other movement-activated surveillance.

“Sensor lights are always great if they’re going to come out there and do it, hopefully since the light to catch them and catch your attention before they even try,” said Sgt. Lewis, “so we recommend what’s doing the hard targeting, hard surveillance, mechanical surveillance for your home that will probably stop before they even come up.”

We also reached out to the Chatham County Police Department to gauge of how many, if any, ding-dong ditch calls they received on the Islands recently.