It’s officially spooky season, but for one California homeowner, the scares are coming from something totally unexpected. A viral Ring video shows a mystery woman repeatedly attacking Halloween decorations like she’s in the middle of an exorcism. Of course, the internet can’t stop talking about it.
The footage, captured outside Tonyia Sampognaro’s home in Salinas, California, shows what looks like a regular jogger passing by until she suddenly doubles back, grinning ear to ear, and throws a full-on punch at a witch decoration. The bizarre ritual didn’t just happen once, either. The witch-punching jogger came back twice in October to finish the job. In the first video, she knocks down a single witch; in the second, she delivers a one-woman beatdown to all three. Somewhere out there, Michael Myers is taking notes.
According to KSBW, the odd incidents took place on October 11 and 21, 2025. Sampognaro, who shared the clips online, said she doesn’t recognize the woman. and neither do any of her neighbors. What makes the whole thing even weirder is that her house seems to be the only one being targeted. Other homes in the Salinas neighborhood have similar Halloween setups, but this mystery woman apparently has a personal vendetta against these particular witches.
California Witch Puncher Strikes Quiet Neighborhood
In a follow-up interview with the Daily Mail, Sampognaro revealed that one neighbor may have spotted the culprit before. “She was talking to cars in the parking lot at the grocery store,” the neighbor reportedly said, adding that the woman also writes scriptures on the sidewalk. “So it could very well be a religious thing,” Sampognaro suggested. “I don’t know if it’s that or if it’s mental illness, I just don’t know. It’s really bizarre, though — and it’s creepy.”
Despite the unsettling behavior, some people online are weirdly sympathetic. On TikTok and Reddit, commenters joked that maybe the jogger was cleansing the neighborhood of evil or “fighting the devil one plastic witch at a time.
Others found the footage hilarious, comparing it to a scene straight out of a Saturday Night Live sketch. But beneath the jokes, there’s still an uneasy curiosity about what’s driving this strange streak of witch-related aggression.
She Seems To Be Enjoying Herself
As of now, it’s unclear whether the California witch puncher plans to make a Halloween encore, but residents are definitely keeping an eye out. One commenter even suggested that Sampognaro set up a decoy: another witch, dressed just like the jogger, to see if it triggers another showdown.
“Why she smiling the whole time?” one person asked. “She looks like she would yell “high ya” as she punch the decorations,” joked another. “This feels like a fever dream,” a third person chimed in. “This is why we can’t have anything nice. Someone always ruins it for the rest of us,” a fourth comment read.
Whether it’s mental health, misdirected faith, or just pure Halloween chaos, one thing’s for sure, this California woman has turned a front yard decoration into a viral paranormal feud.
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