Missing girls hidden in a shop for a social challenge

The social challenge

Based on what emerged, therefore, the two girls knowingly, and without their father's knowledge, "gained access to the business where they were later found, taking advantage of the closing operations and with the intention of spending the night inside", confirmed the prosecutor Salvatore De Luca. The gesture, as reported by the investigators, "arose, as declared by the girls themselves, wanting to emulate a similar practice observed on the YouTube platform and on the social channels of well-known influencers, in which the protagonists describe to their followers the experience of hiding inside shops, warehouses or other types of places, evading security measures, staying there all night and leaving the next day without being discovered; some of these contents, as ascertained during the analysis of the navigation carried out on the devices in the availability of minors, have millions of views".

The girls' purpose

According to the investigators, "the repeated viewing of videos on this type of challenge by one of the two girls led to the decision to reproduce the challenge and emulate the influencer, also involving her little sister", the prosecutor further argued. This confirms the thesis of the challenge that had been put forward to the Ansa agency by the girls' father: "It seems that the girls in the community talked about wanting to emulate a challenge seen online, perhaps on YouTube, entitled '24 hours in a shop'. My daughters stayed in the shop the whole time. They locked themselves in the bathroom and I could never have imagined that they could still be in there. That night I lived a nightmare", said Mr Alessandro. "I only filed the missing persons report the following day because I initially hoped to be able to track down the girls myself."

The community

The man's six children, including the two little girls at the center of the story, were taken to the community last Saturday. Alessandro himself, who from the beginning of this story had spoken of "a prank", added: "I have always loved and pampered my children. I recently obtained sole custody and I certainly did not obtain it by behaving badly". Ota it will be up to the Caltanissetta court for minors to understand and decide whether the children can return to their father again.