A FATHER is accused of “scarring” his kids for life after he posted video of his two kids crying and screaming in a Grinch prank gone wrong.
The video, posted to Instagram user Cody Serrao’s account, shows two children sobbing at the sight of a Grinch dressed in a Santa Claus costume. Serrao has since deleted the video, but not before hundreds of comments poured in calling the prank “evil.”
Serrao’s video opens with a boy toddler and his slightly older sister staring out the window just beside a lit-up Christmas tree.
In a scene seemingly straight out of a horror movie, a figure that appears to be a Grinch dressed in a Santa costume passes by the window and shoots a quick glance at the two tots, who are already crying when the video begins.
The kids turn to adult filming for help, who asks “why” before approaching the window and showing the two kids there’s nothing there.
“Where’d he go?” the videographer asks before turning the camera back on the kids. The girl, clutching a pink tablet with her left hand, has her right hand in her mouth as she bawls at the idea of a green man surrounding her home.
The boy turns to the camera, saying something inaudible, which prompts the man to repeat “where did he go?”
As the man walks to the front door of the home, the whimpering of the two kids drowns out the background just as the man opens the front door.
Pretending not to see the Grinch approaching the house, the man yells “Okay I thought I saw him but I don’t see him anymore,” just as the Grinch gets into full camera view.
As the boy comes to the door, he squeals and starts crying while pointing at the Grinch, and then responds in a deathening “yea” to to the man, who asked “is that him?”
In true Grinch fashion, the Grinch approaches the lit-up Santa statue outside the home and attempts to steal him, prompting the man to say “no, not Santa. Don’t take Santa,” just as the Grinch unplugs the light and the boy is heard weeping behind him.
As the Grinch approaches the front door, the camera pans to the two kids now fully howling and attempting to distance themselves from the green man.
Their wailing turns to sheer terror as the Grinch fastens his pace up the stairs with his arms outstretched in an attempt to grab the two children. In the background, the two tots let out a deafening shriek of terror as the Grinch approaches, before he veers right towards the Christmas tree.
As the petrified children stand still and let out an even louder holler, the Grinch picks up a Santa by the tree and inches closer to the children, now hysterically crying at the intruder.
Perhaps sensing the end of a cruel joke, the man asks “who is it?” as the two kids continue screaming. When the Grinch begins taking off his mask to reveal someone the kids recognize, the little boy is so startled, he still continued screaming – even as the man gives the two tots a hug.
Before deleting his Instagram page, Serrao was on the receiving end of a number of comments from people accusing him of traumatizing his children.
One user accused Serrao of “scarring his kids for life,” while others described the prank as pure “evil.”
