A dad who only downloaded TikTok a week ago has already gone viral after filming himself playing a prank on his unsuspecting neighbour. Adrian Heaton, 40, has become an unlikely star on the video sharing platform after he posted a clip of him firing a confetti cannon into the garden of his neighbour, Gareth Jones.
The video - which has already received nearly 200,000 likes - has left viewers in stitches, with some even saying that they wished they had Adrian as a neighbour. He explained that the opportunity for the practical joke arose when he saw Gareth cleaning up his garden after having a few friends over the night before.
“Gazza has a bar installed in his garden and a few of us went round for a drink on Friday night,” Adrian told the Manchester Evening News. "The idea for the prank came about while I was still in bed when my missus saw that he was cleaning up. We’ve had a few birthday parties at our house and we had a few of the confetti cannons spare.
"I quickly grabbed one, ran downstairs in my boxers and thought that would be the perfect opportunity. He looks up to see me and as he turns off the hoover to say hello, I let off the confetti cannon."
He added: "He has a tendency to spit the dummy out and I think Gaz’s reaction is just brilliant as he throws a bit of a hissy fit. Thankfully, he saw the funny side. By the time he got to the house, he was laughing about it. He came over and gave me a handshake and said ‘well done, I’d have done that too’.”
The success of the video - which has been watched over 3.7 million times in just a few days - has come as quite a shock to Adrian, from Standish in Wigan, who admitted he had only become acquainted with TikTok just a week earlier. You can read more about the latest viral TikTok clips here.
He said: "I had downloaded the app because my daughter is on it and I wanted to do a bit of safeguarding. I was just playing with it. But when I posted it, it was a bit of a surprise to see the numbers going up.
"Once it hit 20,000 views, I was saying to Gazza that it might hit 50k and he said he reckoned it’d do more than that. I woke up the following morning and saw that it had over 700,000 views.
"By tea time, it was at two million views and we're now at 3.6 million. I still have no clue what any of it really means. My daughter is a little bit jealous of the TikTok fame to be honest, but she’s loving it. She’s gone to school and told everyone that her dad is famous, which is a little bit ambitious but it’s great. If I had a pound for everyone who’s viewed it, I'd be a very happy man."
The video - posted with the caption 'Everybody loves good neighbours' - has won Adrian a legion of fans, with hundreds thanking him for putting a smile on their face. "This is hilarious," said one viewer, with another adding: "That was brilliant, my kind of humour." A third said that the prank showed "neighbourly love at its best".
Others said they wouldn't mind having the pair as neighbours, with one person writing: "I'd like to live next to you both. They're miserable sods round where I live". Another added: "Everyone needs a neighbour like him."
Construction company director Adrian said that he and Gareth have become firm friends after moving in next door to each other around the same time. Adrian moved into his house in December 2020 while Gareth moved in next door in February 2021.
“He has the bar at the back of his garden and we have a trampoline,” said Adrian. "Over the summer, he puts the pool up, we’ve both got kids so we have a good laugh. We’ve forged a nice friendship.
“We are quite close neighbours now. With the bar, we do have some late nights and parties. Everyone gets on so well, it’s just a jovial place and the whole neighbourhood is really friendly. It’s often like an episode of Neighbours here.”
However, while the prank was taken with good humour by Gareth, Adrian can't afford to rest on his laurels for too long, as his neighbour is already plotting his revenge. In a second clip, Gareth creeps up on Adrian and his wife as they sit outside in their front garden before letting off a confetti cannon in their faces.
“We’ve done a few pranks in the past,” said Adrian. “I was barbequing in his garden once and he just picked me up and threw me in the pool fully clothed. If he’s had a few too many, he’ll throw things at my bedroom window and give me a late night rendition.
“Now that he’s already got me back, I’m going to have to get my thinking cap on to see how I can better it. But I think the plan is to let the dust - or the confetti - settle first and get him when he least expects it.”
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