Dad sets up genius trap for son after catching him sneaking out the house

Of all the dad pranks, this must rank among the most inventive.

When one TikTok user, with the username @RhythmlessMan, learned that his son Jesse had snuck out of the house with friends, he decided that he “kinda [had] to F with them” when they returned home.

Thanks to a Ring doorbell camera, Jesse and his pals were captured climbing through the window, one by one.

Suddenly, the lights turned on and the family’s Alexa smartspeaker began reading out a special message.

“Hi Jesse. Next time, just say you want to go out, so you don’t need to climb through a window with all your friends. I hope you had fun, were safe, and didn’t c*** your pants when I started talking,” it said.

It then added: “I may go viral on TikTok with this. Thanks for the content.”

And viral, it went.

The youngsters were caught on candid camera @RhythmlessMan/TikTok

The video, posted three on @RhythmlessMan’s account, racked up a combined total of more than 19 million views in just six days, as fellow TikTokers shared their thoughts on the prank.

Some were torn over the response of Jesse who, after realising he had been stitched up, proceeded to address his dad through the camera and say: “I love you, but f*** you.”

“If I ever flipped off my parents they’d ship me to Chernobyl without a gas mask,” wrote one.

“I would be six feet below the ground if I would’ve ever talked to my parents like that,” said another.

However, one top comment – which was liked by the father – read: “Man’s said ‘I love you’ like eight times and y’all worried. How many teenage boys you know say I say ‘I love you’ to your parents in front of seven other kids?”

In a follow-up video, the father revealed how he set up the elaborate stunt, which included a decoy camera, LED smart bulbs and the trusty Amazon voice assistant.

“[I] opened up Alexa, created what’s called a routine which is super easy - it’s just a bunch of if/when statements.

“Basically, it said: if the decoy camera detected any motion, wait 15 seconds – ‘cause I wanted the kids to get in the window – then turn both lamps on to high brightness and then speak,” he explained.

Despite Jesse’s initial sweary reaction, he later appeared to revel in the elaborate joke, creating four comedy videos about the trap on his own TikTok profile.