'The IKEA challenge' is the internet's latest dumb viral sensation

We all remember the crazy fads from our school days. You know; pogs, yoyos, locking yourself in a shop overnight. No? OK, you might not remember the last one as it’s currently sweeping Europe.

The IKEA Challenge, as it’s being called, is to attempt to hide inside the shop overnight and not get caught. Which if you think about all the display beds, can’t be too uncomfortable - there are worse places you could spend the night. Like Argos.

However, perhaps unsurprisingly, IKEA aren’t happy about it, and have warned of the dangers of participating after 11-year-old Kaden Mirza was reported missing earlier this week in Sheffield, only to be found… you guessed it, in IKEA.

The craze apparently originated in 2016 after Belgian YouTubers Bakuna Fatata (we can only assume this is some sort of hilarious Lion King reference) filmed themselves in IKEA overnight, even having dinner in the cafe first.

To be honest, what’s the point of going to IKEA if you’re not going to eat the meatballs? You can order everything online now, there’s really no need to put yourself through it.

Perhaps by far the best thing to come out of this craze (the worst being the wasting of police time spent hunting for a kid who’s happily snoozing away in a Nordruta bed set for 12 hours) is the image of people building forts out of furniture while inside.

Sheffield Police issued a statement about the challenge “encouraging members of the public, particularly youngsters, to hide and build forts inside large stores and warehouses”.

Detective Inspector Anna Sedgwick also placed the somehow inherently funny structures at the top of her warning, saying: “Warehouses and shopping departments contain large quantities of heavy stock and items that could easily fall and crush someone if they are moved incorrectly, or used to build makeshift forts.”

So, we get it, people are building lots of forts. But at least they’re not nicking meatballs.

(Image: Rex)