Granddad Almost Has 'Heart Attack' Over Toddler's Niagara Falls Prank

Everyone wants the perfect shot from their vacation, and sometimes that means taking a little risk to get the most memorable photo.

Fortunately for Casey Kacz from Buffalo, New York, getting a picture of his son dangerously close to Niagara Falls only took a bit of editing on Photoshop. When Kacz sent his dad the edited images, his reaction was nothing short of horror, as he thought they were genuine shots of his grandson.

Kacz wanted to try the prank out on his dad because he knows how protective he gets of the grandchildren, telling Newsweek that he "knew he would have an interesting reaction." In the end, his dad's response to the Photoshopped images was even stronger than Kacz had imagined, as he added that he "didn't know it would be to that extent."

After the images were sent over, Kacz's dad was audibly panicking and begging his son to be more cautious. Kacz couldn't help but see the hilarity in the situation though, joking that it "put him over the edge."

The growing desire to get the perfect picture to share online has led to a huge increase in doctoring photos. A study in 2020 asked 550 people about their social media habits to find out if increased use of photo editing impacted the person's self-esteem.

The preferred site for posting images was Instagram, which was favored by 53 percent of the participants. Around 99 percent of the people posted less than five images per week, but 81 percent of them admitted to editing a photo before posting it.

A quarter of the total participants reportedly edit over 40 percent of the total photos they post online, and the most common reason to edit a photo was to edit out a skin lesion or scar.

As editing photos has become increasingly commonplace, 50 percent of participants in the study said that they are dependent on their appearance online, and if someone else posted a photo of them which they didn't like the look of, they would un-tag themselves from it.

After Kacz sent the doctored images of his son standing on a railing in front of the Niagara Falls, he explained to Newsweek that his dad would have no idea that they could possibly be fake.

Kacz said: "My dad isn't great with technology, so I knew he wouldn't grasp the idea of Photoshopped images, but I know that he's always intense about protecting his grandkids.

"My dad has laughed about it since, and my mom thought it was hilarious. I was actually also able to prank her too because of all the attention that this video received."

Since Kacz shared the video of his dad's reaction to the edited images, it has already generated over 11.8 million views on TikTok in just a matter of days. Many social media users loved seeing how protective and worried the man was about his grandson, and the clip has received over 1.8 million likes already.

Among the 20,000 comments on the viral video, many people reacted to the sheer horror in the grandad's voice when he saw the photo.

One comment reads: "You're about to give this man a damn heart attack!"

Another person commented: "omg I can't breathe, the railing pic he's traumatized."

"I'd trust your dad with my own children around Niagara Falls," wrote another TikToker.

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