ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office tells Action News Jax a group of teens was detained Sunday night after a homeowner in the Julington Creek Plantation neighborhood called 911 when she heard loud bangs at her front door.
Her husband, Robert Corlett, told Action News Jax he thought someone was trying to break into their house.
“There were three gigantic bangs on our front door like somebody was coming through,” Corlett said, “they weren’t knocks, just the loudest bangs I’d heard in my life.”
Corlett said he has a concealed carry permit, and he had his handgun with him once he heard the bangs. After asking who was at the door, he told us he didn’t get a response, but saw a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office helicopter over his house minutes after the 911 call was made.
“It was very stressful, very unexpected. It appeared to be a massive response,” Corlett said.
Once Corlett realized a group of what he said were four teens had been detained by deputies, he started thinking about how much worse the situation could have become.
“These kids were just taking these ridiculous risks for the thrill of it,” Corlett said, “this could have ended very badly. The police had their guns drawn. They could have shot them.”
Three other homeowners on Corlett’s street told Action News Jax their front doors had been kicked last night, too, and they tell us more nearby homes were targeted. The homeowners and the sheriff’s office believes a TikTok challenge may be part of the reason behind what happened.
Action News Jax has been reporting about the “door kick” challenge for more than a year. The videos that have gone viral show one or more people kicking on someone’s door and then running off. But the damage this can cause can be costly; the Home Depot estimates front door installations to generally cost as much as $998 or more.
Corlett isn’t asking for the kids involved in what happened to be locked up, but he is planning to press charges in hopes that his door will get fixed and a lesson will be learned.
“The parents need to talk to these kids about what the repercussions could be. These kids think it’s funny or fun, but it could be deadly,” Corlett said.
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