A Tustin woman was hospitalized after she was unwittingly targeted in a TikTok prank in Target

It was supposed to be a social media prank, police said, but a Tustin mother of twins passed out and was hospitalized after she was the unwitting target of the stunt.

“This is not OK,” said Lana Clay-Monaghan, 35, who said she was shopping at Target in Tustin by herself when someone put a bucket over her head. “I was fearful for my life, but I could hear laughing behind me.”

The incident occurred Sunday at about 2:45 p.m. at a Target store at 2300 Park Ave., according to Tustin Police.

Clay-Monaghan said she’d been at the store for about 10 minutes, leaning down to look at baby wipes and bathing soap for her twins when everything went suddenly dark.

“All of a sudden my vision, my hearing was obstructed,” she said.

She thought she was alone in the aisle, she said, so the feeling of something being placed over her head frightened her. She screamed and flailed her arms, tossing the object off her head, she said.

“I turned to my left and when I turned around it was a group of males filming me,” she said, noting that she distinctly noticed two or four males pointing their phones at her.

The stunt is a popular prank on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, repeated in the aisles of retail stores. A bucket or basket is placed over the head of an unsuspecting shopper, while their reaction is recorded and posted online. At times, the prankster themselves also places an object over their own head at the same time, pretending to be a victim of the prank as well.

But on Sunday afternoon, Clay-Monaghan said the shock and fear caused her to lose consciousness, black out and fall to the floor.

Lana Clay-Monaghan and her husband, Mark Monaghan, and 8-month-old twins, Joey and Jay.

(Courtesy of Lana Clay-Monaghan)

“I started to say, ‘Help me,’ when I fell to the ground,” she said. “My last memory is people laughing at me.”

The Tustin mother of 8-month-old twins said she was taken to a hospital where she was told she suffered an “acute heart issue” that caused her to pass out.

She was released later that day, and filed a police report.

Tustin Police in a statement said four male juveniles were seen grabbing a bucket they put over Clay-Monaghan’s head.

“Several seconds later the juveniles are seen fleeing the store,” the statement read.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the department said the individuals have not been identified.

Clay-Monaghan said she wants the people behind the incident to be held accountable.

“We crossed a line,” she said.

She was upset that she was targeted in the stunt, but said she was truly shocked knowing that instead of getting help when she passed out, the culprits ran.

“What a failure to our children to not teach them that the moment you do something wrong, you have integrity and you go get help,” she said.