California woman hospitalized after being targeted in TikTok ‘bucket challenge’

Lana Clay-Monaghan enjoyed checking TikTok and other social media platforms.

But after she became the target of an online prank and was hospitalized, the 35-year-old Tustin resident is unsure of the future of her online presence.

On Sunday afternoon, Clay-Monaghan went out to enjoy Target, but his shopping suddenly changed when his vision went black as he scoured the aisles for soap.

Someone put a bucket on Clay Monaghan’s head as a tribute to the online “Bucket Challenge”, in which he shoots himself shocking strangers. Clay Monaghan, who said he had epilepsy, which can be triggered by shocking stimuli, caused dangerous disorientation.

“The last thing I remember was saying, ‘Please help me, I have epilepsy.’ They were filming me laughing,” said Clay Monahan. “Then I hit the ground and then woke up at the UCI Medical Center.”

At the hospital, Clay Monahan said doctors told her she was the victim of an assault and had experienced “heart problems” from the incident. She added that she may have also had her seizures.Clay Monaghan also said she suffered emotional distress from the prank.

“It really hurts that[they]thought they were crazy,” Clay-Monahan said. “There was a definite point when they found out it wasn’t funny. And I would have expected a bit of humanity…you don’t leave me on the ground- You go and ask for help.

In a news release, Tustin Police described what happened to Clay Monaghan as an assault.

“The boys were likely trying to replicate the current social media trend of placing buckets on strangers’ heads and filming their reactions,” the release said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if a video of the Tustin Target incident existed or if it was posted.

While the police are investigating, Clay Monahan wants the prankster himself to come forward and be held accountable.

She said the role of social media is also on her mind.

Search “stranger bucket challenge” on TikTok and you’ll get hundreds of results. Some videos have more than 2 million likes and more views.

TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the app does provide safety warnings for certain videos. It states, “Participating in this activity may result in injury to you or others.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if bucket challenges would also trigger these warnings, or what exactly TikTok’s policy regarding bucket challenges would be.

Clay-Monaghan said he was previously unaware of the online trend, describing the demand for content aimed at disorienting strangers and how it affected Sunday pranksters. I have doubts about

“How many times have they grown up in terms of their morals, their values, how they treat each other, when they see pranks and this is the norm?” said Clay Monaghan. “This isn’t just TikTok. It’s a platform where you can post (do) these things to people you don’t have consent to or don’t know.”