Woman Loses Consciousness After Teenagers Place Bucket Over Her Head For TikTok Stunt

A prank that is making rounds on social media has led to a woman losing consciousness at a Target store in California and then waking up at the hospital.

The incident is now being investigated by the police as a case of assault and battery.

Lana Clay-Monaghan, a 30-year-old cancer survivor who recently became a mother to twin boys, was shopping for baby products at the outlet in Tustin on Sunday afternoon when a group of teenagers placed a bucket over her head.

Security footage from the store captured the four teenage boys targeting the unsuspecting mother and filming her as she struggled with the bucket over her head.

"I was looking at some baby soap. I leaned down and my whole world changed," Clay-Monaghan told KTLA. "Everything went quiet, dark and there was really no air."

Clay-Monaghan said she was confused, scared and disoriented for a few seconds.

"It obscured my vision," she told ABC7. "I couldn't hear and I really couldn't breathe and I immediately grabbed for it and started screaming for help."

When Clay-Monaghan finally got the bucket off her head, she found the group of boys laughing and filming her.

"The last thing I said was 'help' and I started to cry and that was the last moment before I went out and I hit the ground," Clay-Monaghan told the outlet.

Clay-Monaghan said she suffers from epilepsy and passed out at the time due to the sudden stress. She was taken to the hospital, where she finally regained consciousness.

Police said the incident matches a prank that is currently trending on social media platforms like TikTok.

The stunt, called the "stranger bucket challenge," involves tossing a bucket or basket over a stranger's head and filming their reaction.

"Sometimes these kids think what they're doing is a prank," Lt. Ryan Coe said, as per NBC Los Angeles. "In reality, it's a crime."

After targeting Clay-Monaghan, the four teenagers ran out of the store and escaped on electric bikes, leaving the mother dealing with the psychological and physical impact of their stunt.

"I keep looking over my shoulder. I'm a nervous wreck," she recalled, according to KTLA. "I cannot believe that in my community you could go to Target, be in Target maybe a mere 10 to 15 minutes and someone would find it amusing to come and strategically find a female by herself in the baby aisle and think this would be funny or laughable for likes."

The Tustin Police Department retrieved surveillance footage and is investigating the incident.

"Obviously, in this case, it can have some pretty bad consequences, but at the end of the day it's a crime," Coe said, as per the outlet. "It's an assault and battery on another person and we're going to investigate it that way."

Clay-Monaghan added that she has not yet recovered from the incident. She also urged parents to warn their kids about the dangers of such challenges.

"This needs to be an example that families can talk about now and say, 'Look, you see this on social media, it's not appropriate to do that,' and again, those individuals need to come forward and be held accountable," she said.