The 24 Hour Fort challenge, also known as the 24 hour challenge or Overnight challenge, is a challenge which originated in 2016 and reached the peak of its popularity in 2018. During the challenge, participants must reach a location or venue before it closes for the evening and

trespass Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land. Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding ...

on the property by hiding in a 'fort'. These forts are normally a quickly constructed hiding place made by moving products on shelves in such a way that the participants can hide behind them, although some participants have carried out the challenge simply by hiding in areas such as

public toilet A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils ...

s and staff-only areas. In the case of venues which stay open 24 hours a day, such as larger supermarkets and stores, an alternative goal is to simply stay within the building for as long as possible without being caught. While the challenge's name implies that participants are to stay at their chosen location for a full day (24 hours), most videos of the challenge simply have those taking part attempt to remain in the building until morning. Once the location closes, the goal is to remain in the venue for as long as possible before the location reopens in the morning, or until the building's staff or security apprehend the participants. Several store chains and companies have spoken out against the challenge, and participants risk being banned from stores or facing criminal charges for trespassing,

criminal damage Property damage (or cf. criminal damage in England and Wales) is damage or destruction of Real property, real or tangible Personal property, personal property, caused by negligence, Willful violation, willful destruction, or Act of God, act of na ...

and

breaking and entering Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

. The challenge can be traced back to August 2016, in which two Belgian teenagers remained inside an

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

branch after closing time by hiding in wardrobes. However, examples of people hiding and living in stores for extended periods of time precede the challenge. In 2014, a 14-year-old runaway lived inside a Texas

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

branch for two days, consuming shoplifted food and changing his clothes to avoid detection while living inside a hiding place he set up behind boxed merchandise in the store's baby care section; he was apprehended and returned to his family after an employee noticed him and informed law enforcement.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 Challenges Viral videos

See also

References