The Denver Zoo made the decision to close its doors early this past Saturday in response to a potential teen “takeover” of the park, which had been circulating on the social media platform TikTok. This move was a preventative measure against a growing trend of youth-led disruptions in public spaces nationwide. The zoo’s staff were uncertain about the specifics of the planned event, but they were determined to avoid the chaos and damage that similar incidents have caused in other parts of the country during the summer.
Jake Kubie, a spokesperson for the zoo, expressed concern over the potential for disruption and vandalism, citing past events organized in a similar manner. He told KUSA, “We don’t know the exact nature of the event, but we know previous events organized in a similar fashion have led to some disruption to local businesses, damage, vandalism, things like that.”
Despite the early closure, the zoo staff remained vigilant, though no one showed up for the anticipated takeover. Other community advocates and police officers spent the remainder of their Saturday afternoon patrolling Denver’s City Park in the sweltering heat as an extra precaution.
This incident follows a similar event last weekend at Denver’s Northfield Mall, where over 300 teenagers gathered and began fighting each other after a call to meet at the shopping center was made on TikTok.
The trend is not limited to Denver. On the East Coast, teenagers in the Garden State have also been causing disruptions. In a single week, two separate TikTok-inspired gatherings led hundreds of teens to overrun a mall and a carnival located just a few miles apart. At the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey, over 300 young people turned the shopping center into a chaotic scene, forcing shoppers to seek refuge inside stores as fights broke out.
The following week, another teen takeover resulted in the destruction of a carnival in a mall parking lot, located a mere 2.5 miles from the Edison site. Despite attempts to impose an 18-and-up limit for after-hours, the teenagers defied the rules and began climbing fences to gain entry.