BEDFORD, Ohio — Bedford Police issuing a warning about a new dangerous and potentially deadly TikTok challenge.
“It’s a huge public safety issue and these kids don’t understand that,” said Bedford Police Deputy Chief Rick Suts.
It’s called the Orbeez Challenge. According to police, unsuspecting people are shot with water gel beads that are loaded into a pellet gun and sometimes mimmick a drive-by shooting.
“We’ve had reports of FedEx drivers actually driving being shot through open doors of their vehichles, mailmen being shot, kids coming up on a crowd of people and just opening fire on them from cars. It creates panic, people can get hurt very easily,” explained Suts.
Since the end of May, Suts said, police officers have responded to between 15 and 20 calls about people being shot with water gel beads.
“If kids will eat Tide Pods because it’s cool to be on social media eating Tide Pods, they’ll do anything that someone challenges them to do,” said Suts.
Police stress it is illegal and charges can be filed.
The family of Ethan Liming is considering a lawsuit against TikTok after the teen was beat to death on June 2 following an incident with a water bead toy gun. You can watch more about Ethan Liming and the potential lawsuit below:
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