A TikTok posted Thursday of a security guard allegedly attempting to detain a man at a private dog park has gone viral with 1 million views and 52,000 likes. The video has also gotten traction on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook.
The video, posted by TikToker @yungjayoh1, starts with a voice assistant reading on-screen text that says, “So I take Ziggy to the dog park closest to my house today and this happens!!!”
After the voice assistant stops, a man in a green polo shirt and blue lanyard tells the TikToker that he’ll call a “zone car” to make the situation “easy.” The TikToker offers to leave instead, but the man refuses, saying that he’s detaining the TikToker for “criminal trespass.”
“How is it criminal? I live right here,” the TikToker says while turning the camera to a nearby apartment complex.
“You don’t live on this property,” the man replies. He continues to say that the TikToker was also at the dog park “the other day” and that he “made some comments to some people” who accused the TikToker of beating his dog, Ziggy.
The TikToker denies beating his dog, prompting the man to say that he doesn’t care because it didn’t happen on the property. The TikToker attempts to leave again, but the man continues to say that he’s being detained.
“You can leave if you want to, but I can pick you up at the house,” the man says.
The TikToker tells the man that he has no right to take him from his home because he didn’t do anything but bring his dog to the dog park.
“OK, well I will leave,” the TikToker says after the man insists again that the TikToker is being detained. “You said it’s criminal trespass and I’m leaving.”
The TikToker says that he feels “unsafe” as the man follows him around the dog park.
“Feel unsafe if you want to, but you not going anywhere until a zone car gets here,” the man says.
The TikToker uploaded a second part to the story that was removed from TikTok for “graphic content,” according to another video on his account.
The videos remain on the TikToker’s Instagram account, however. In one video, which is only 14 seconds long, the TikToker repeats that it’s his “first time” at that dog park “and no one’s ever told [him] not to come.”
In the third video, which seems to be the one removed from TikTok, the man approaches the TikToker while pointing a finger in his face. The man’s shirt is lifted slightly, and there is a badge and red holster visible on his right hip.
“Don’t walk up on me,” the man says as the TikToker approaches the exit that the man is blocking. The TikToker tells the man that he has no authority to detain him because he’s not a police officer.
“Doesn’t matter what I—yes I—” the man says before abruptly hitting the TikToker. When the TikToker aims the camera at the man again, the man is pointing something at him.
The TikToker says that it is a gun, but it seems to be the man’s cell phone, which he was holding in the same hand just before hitting the TikToker. The man immediately threw the object to the ground and said “I ain’t pointing shit at you” after the TikToker accused him of holding a gun.
The man in the video was identified as an employee of Associated Protective Service, a security company in Nashville, Tennessee, where the incident took place.
The company allegedly made a statement about the incident on its Facebook page, but the company’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages can no longer be found. The company website is “down for maintenance.”
The TikToker shared a screenshot of the alleged statement to his Instagram, however. According to the screenshot, the company is working with the Metro National Police Department and Bells Bluff Apartments, the apartment complex where the dog park was located, to “gather additional details” about the incident.
The screenshot also says that the man in the video was “off-duty” and has been “placed on administrative leave until the investigation is complete.”
Some comments and videos have misidentified the security guard’s workplace as Adult Protective Services, an investigative unit of Tennessee’s Department of Human Services. This seems to have resulted in the unit being review-bombed.
The agency has 15 reviews as of Monday. Ten of these reviews are 1-star and were made on or after Sunday. One reviewer called out the security guard writing “come to my dog park” and “hope he’s got life insurance.”
Commenters on @yungjayoh1’s TikTok and Instagram posts fully support the TikToker and suggest that he sue the security guard and the company for “unlawful detainment” among other crimes. The TikToker wrote in the comments of his most recent video that he is in the process of getting a lawyer.
While commenters were on the TikToker’s side, many argued over the definitions of “unlawful detainment” and “trespassing” and how they changed in different jurisdictions.
Facebook user Jemale_Michal gave a rundown of the incident in a 4-minute video that included footage of an officer who allegedly responded to the incident.
In the video, the officer seems to say that the TikToker wasn’t committing a crime because he “hadn’t been told” he was trespassing. He continues to say that the TikToker “did the exact right thing” by immediately attempting to leave when he was told he wasn’t allowed on the property.
These statements are supported by Tennessee law. However, the officer also says the security guard would have been within his rights to detain the TikToker if a crime had been committed, which is untrue.
According to Tennessee law, “a security officer lacks the authority to detain a suspect without consent unless the officer has arrested the suspect on supportable probable cause.” It is possible for a detainment to turn into a citizen’s arrest, but the specific actions required are “highly fact based.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @yungjayoh1 via TikTok and Instagram comment and to Bells Bluff Apartments and the Metro National Police Department via email. They did not immediately respond to the request for comment. The Daily Dot was unable to reach Associated Protective Service.
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