OMAHA, Neb. — Jay Johnson loves his two dogs. He says to him, they are family.
This past weekend, he came close to losing them after they escaped from the backyard of his Omaha home. The dogs escaped while Johnson was in the shower.
"(I) get out of the shower, notice there's a message on my phone, ‘I got your dog’,” said Johnson.
That's when Johnson came out, he realized his fence was broken which was how the dogs escaped. He said someone ran into and destroyed his fence the night before.
Luckily, Johnson was able to recover his animals, but he also has an $800 expense to replace the fence, and he's not alone.
The so-called "Kool-Aid Man Challenge" on TikTok is leading to a rash of vandalism in Omaha and surrounding areas.
In the challenge, someone runs into and destroys random fences in an effort to mimic the mascot of the popular powdered drink. The damage is not an easy fix, especially these days.
Surveillance video that was recently captured shows a group of several people charging another fence at a different home in Omaha.
The footage went viral on social media which is getting the attention of law enforcement.
“They get into a group mentality where one of them thinks they have a good idea and the others ones go along with it," said Lt. James Wrigley, Sarpy County Sheriff's Office.
"Once we meet up with these kids individually they tend to say they're sorry and wouldn't do this by themselves,”
Wrigley said say his department has responded to eight calls of this happening across the county. In the case of the aforementioned video, around $3,500 worth of damage was done to the fence.
Lindsay Anderson, Operations Manager at S&W Fence said this kind of damage is normally tough to fix. Current supply shortages make the job even harder.
“Vinyl pricing more than doubled when the pandemic hit as with everything," said Anderson. "The cost to repair them for some people is more than the price they paid to get their entire fence.”
Johnson said he wants to see the people doing this face real consequences.
“They need to learn a lesson, big time," he said. "It can't just be a slap on the hand.”
The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office said they're still looking for the individuals in the video.
Those responsible for the damage could face criminal mischief charges, and the severity of those charges would depend upon the damage to property.
This story was first reported by Ron Johnson at KMTVin Omaha, Neb.
