Prank culture is a big part of social media, perhaps most prevalent on TikTok, where the short video format allows a successful prank to go viral in just a few hours.
Clout-seeking users are creating accounts dedicated to pranks, and taking advantage of unwary shoppers at stores like Home Depot, Walmart and Target is a popular way to earn shock currency.
At least one user of the platform is urging viewers that these pranksters are far from hilarious and are crossing the line.
JW Gallo (@jwgallo) posted a video to his TikTok account on Saturday in which he claims to be trying to “stay ahead” of another video. The video, he says, shows him being pranked. He implies that the video has not yet been posted by the prankster. The Daily Dot could not find any evidence of this online.
Gallo captioned the video, “Pranks are not cool!” The video has now been viewed over 690,200 times.
“I’m going to get ahead of myself on this one: I got pranked today,” Gallo said at the start of the video. “Teenagers pulled a prank on TikTok at a Target in Milford, Connecticut. It was not funny.”
Gallo claims he left the cart with items in it to look for socks, and the unidentified boys “took the cart and hid it from me,” Gallo said.
“I spent the next 15-20 minutes looking for my shopping cart and had no idea where it was so I asked a nice Target associate for help,” Gallo said.
He also claims that “teenagers” were “filming me the whole time, and when I caught them with the cart, they filmed my reaction. I was upset and probably not looking my best. They thought it was hilarious.”
“Honestly, making fun of people isn’t funny,” Gallo says in the video, at which point he appears to chuckle.
“I’m being preemptive. This is not cool. Stop it. It’s not a good prank. It’s evil. … So if you see it on TikTok, tell me this is bad and I was right,” he concluded.
The Daily Dot reached out to Target via email requesting a statement.
Aside from a moment of what appears to be stifled laughter, Gallo appears to be sincere, but the lack of evidence and the appearance of the video, which Gallo claims was made by “teenagers,” could lead one to believe that Gallo himself is playing a light prank.
@jwgallo Pranks are not cool! #fyp #pranks #prank #tiktok #foryoupage ♬ Storytelling – Adriel
Viewers’ opinions
But his anti-prank message resonated with viewers.
“I don’t like pranks in general. Humor at the expense of others is never funny to me,” wrote Pamela’s Art Designs (@pamelawarman1).
Misty Wilson (@mistywilson06) added, “To me this is a prank someone would play on friends and family they know, not strangers. I’m sad this happened!”
“I agree that the prank is sick and twisted,” Gallo responded.
Another viewer commented: “You never know what someone else is going through. For me it would be upsetting as it would take a lot of effort to walk around a store without experiencing major anxiety and physical symptoms.”
However, some viewers seemed skeptical of Gallo’s testimony.
“This video makes me feel like I’m being pranked, which makes the rest of the video actually pretty funny,” wrote Jean O’Brien (@jeannieobrien2).
“I think this is a prank,” another person commented.
Retail tampering can have serious consequences
Whether true or not, online pranks have had serious consequences in the past: Lana Clay Monahan of Tustin, California, reportedly suffered an epileptic seizure and was hospitalized after boys placed a trash can on her head at Target.
In 2022, TikTok user @jaykindafunny8 was thrown to the floor and tackled after trying to prank a Home Depot shopper by blasting a megaphone into his ear. The man he was “pranking” happened to be a professional bodyguard.
Then in 2023, a woman named Arelyn Martinez was shot and killed while filming “a fake kidnapping video that she and several friends made to upload to a popular social media video platform,” according to Distractify.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Gallo via email and TikTok Messenger for further comment.
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