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The footage looks straight out of a horror movie. Three people in disturbing Halloween masks stand in a line on a front lawn, captured by a doorbell camera. They verbally identify themselves as “your worst nightmare,” then approach the door, one by one.
A deformed clown tiptoes silently, head cocked in menacing curiosity. Someone in a Michael Myers getup growls, “Open up the door!” A man with a wrinkled, smirking mask draws his hand across his throat, mimicking an execution.
For 11 minutes, even after a resident yells from inside the home that she’s called the police, the trio bangs on the door and issues threats, promising to force their way in for a killing spree. After walking around the house and trying the back entrance, they finally leave.
This Halloween nightmare took place on a Tuesday night two weeks ago in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of the District of Columbia. Inside the house was a shaken-up woman named Shayla, who was visiting her mother.
In the weeks that followed, police canvassed the neighborhood and reviewed area video footage to investigate the “attempted burglary,” while Shayla’s petrified mom stayed with relatives. The police decided to publicly release the doorbell video to help identify suspects. It hit local TV, then promptly went viral.
You can probably see why.
At a Monday press conference, law enforcement officials issued an update: the perpetrators have been identified. And they weren’t deranged maniacs out for blood. They were Shayla’s cousins, playing a prank.
Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire—whose voice, in a fun horror-film twist, sounds as if it’s been run through a voice anonymizer—said that after making the doorbell video public, the cops indeed got tips from viewers, leading them to the culprits.
Apparently, an adult woman devised the plan with her two sons and nephew, who are in their early teens. The three boys dressed up and did the deed. The woman, two other adults, and a fourth child waited nearby, some filming on their phones, presumably hoping for a big reaction from Shayla and her mom.
The news that these people were relatives of their targets was vindication for every curmudgeon—and I count myself among them—who spends April Fools’ Day in whiny protest. We shake our fists at pranksters who sow confusion and mayhem with their stupid little fake-outs. We gripe about the erosion of trust in American society hastened by hooligans who derive entertainment from making the rest of us look dumb.
We probably have some deep childhood wounds from discovering that Santa and the tooth fairy were fake news, and every time we fall for a prank, the scab rips off. Now, the Alexandria Ring cam trio has come along to support our case.
As a sobering reminder of how annoying hoaxes can be, it is doing magnificent work.
According to city police, law enforcement officers spent over 100 hours on the investigation, wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars and precious time that could have been used on more productive pursuits. Meanwhile, poor Shayla and her mother were chilled to their core, certain that home invaders were out to get them.
Before the culprits were identified, Shayla told a TV news crew that the consequences could have been much, much worse.
“Our Second Amendment right was not used and could have been, being very transparent,” she said.
Before she called the police that night, she phoned her brother, who later arrived with a gun.
McGuire didn’t seem to see anything wrong with that approach. In a press conference, he emphasized that Americans have the legal right to “defend themselves,” implying that Shayla and her brother may have been justified in shooting the boys in masks.
He called the prank a “moral failure” and said if the family had wanted prosecutors to press charges, everyone could have been charged with burglary, and the adults might have faced negligence charges for encouraging their kids to participate.
On one hand, this feels a bit overdramatic, as does the community response.
The Ring cam video became a major news story in Northern Virginia, where local media reported that several households in the neighborhood purchased doorbell cameras in the wake of the prank, worried about potential break-ins.
In an initial press conference, McGuire spoke about the case as if he were investigating a murder spree.
“We’re actively searching for you. We’re going to ultimately find you,” he declared.
On the other hand—good Lord, these kids were terrifying!
In video clips, they seem about to wrench the door open and yell, “Either you come out or we’re coming in!” If you didn’t know they were your family members, you might well have lost it yourself, especially after they banged on a window in the back of the house.
They spent 11 minutes in character, never breaking, even after their cousin called the cops. That’s diabolical.
If you’ll allow me a third hand, though, I unfortunately do have to hand it to these teens, who did all the things we allegedly want teens to do: put down their phones, get outside, spend time with family, learn teamwork.
Instead of underage drinking or getting sucked into a TikTok vortex, they were throwing their whole selves into a bit of performance art. You can hear their laughter in the video—they were having good, clean, only mildly traumatizing fun!
During McGuire’s press conference, after he raised the possibility that the pranksters could have been shot, he said it was “a warning to people: Do not go up to people’s doors, make threats, and play with their lives.”
I would modify that sentiment a bit. It’s a warning to people whose family members have guns. Playing extended, disturbing jokes on those particular relatives is a bad idea.
The times we’re living in are way too sensitive—and gun owners too trigger-happy—for that.
I would never endorse dressing up to scare an older relative out of her home. But if you do, and you want to live to see her disown you, make sure none of her emergency contacts are packing heat.
https://slate.com/life/2025/10/halloween-costume-virginia-kids-ring-camera.html?via=rss