A heated and tense exchange between Florida homeowners and a door-to-door salesman, laced with curse words and racial slurs – which then went viral on TikTok – may have led to a hazardous materials investigation in an Orange County neighborhood on Thursday night.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office confirmed that it is investigating the situation and has forwarded some of its findings to its threat assessment and management team. So far, no one has been detained, arrested, or charged in the investigation.
The viral TikTik video
On July 29, around 2 p.m. a man knocked on someone's door in the Orange County neighborhood, reportedly to sell solar panels. The homeowners — a man and a woman — apparently answered the door and told the salesman that they were not interested, according to an incident report filed with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
The homeowners alleged that the salesman cursed at them and gave them the middle finger when they denied the services, the report said. The salesman has denied those claims to FOX 35.
The salesman alleges that the homeowners began cursing at him and shouting racial slurs and other derogatory statements at him, some of which can be heard in the viral TikTok video.
At some point, the salesman began to record the exchange on his phone, which was later uploaded to TikTok, where it had racked up more than 400,000 views and more than 40,000 comments before it was taken down by the social media platform.
"Take your Black [expletive] out of here before you get [expletive] up," the homeowners alleged said in the video, according to the report.
"Come back again I’m gonna [expletive] hang your [expletive]," was another statement in the video, the report said.
Due to the graphic and charged language in the video, FOX 35 has decided not to show the video. FOX 35 is also not identifying or showing the people in the video as no one has been deemed a suspect nor detained or arrested amid the investigation.
The next day, July 30, the homeowners decided to file a report regarding the threatening messages. The homeowners told police that they began to receive threatening messages and phone calls from random numbers. Both believed that the messages were stemming from the viral video of the argument with the salesman the day before.
The officer who took the report also noted that the man who lived at the home "became uncooperative and began making multiple racially charged statements," which were apparently captured on the officer's body-worn camera. Transcriptions of those alleged statements were not included in the incident report.
The hazmat investigation
On Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, the Orange County Sheriff's Office and Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the area where the homeowner and the salesperson had their now-viral exchange days earlier.
A spokesperson for OCSO told FOX 35 that it was investigating a report of a "suspicious package" in the area. That package was determined to not be a threat and was rendered safe.
"Our deputies responded to reports of a suspicious package, the package was deemed safe by deputies and fire rescue personnel. The incident is resolved and our detectives will conduct a follow up investigation. We have no other details for release at this time," a spokesperson for Orange County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
One person was transported to the hospital, though it was not clear why that person was transported, how they were injured, nor the extent of their injury.
"We will not be commenting further until law enforcement concludes their activities," the spokesperson for Orange County Fire Rescue told FOX 35.
Salesperson: "I was afraid for my life"
FOX 35's Stephanie Buffamonte talked with Antavis Johnson, the salesman at the center of the viral TikTok video. He agreed to talk with FOX 35 on Friday.
He told FOX 35 that he was in the neighborhood going door-to-door to talk to homeowners about solar panels.
"I had my binder, had the notice, but before I was able to pull out my notice, she called her husband down and that's when everything just turned left and, [expletive], get out of my house [expletive] get out of our neighborhood," he said.
He said once the situation escalated, he began to fear for his life and decided to record the situation.
"I just pulled my phone out to, you know because I was, I was afraid for my life that, like I was so scared," he said.
Johnson said the homeowner was angry because he had a "no soliciting sign."
"All he could have said was I'm not interested, no soliciting. But it turned sideways and called me [expletive] right out the back and get out of the neighborhood. So it's just been lost for words," Johnson said.
He denied the homeowners' claims that he cursed at them and gave them the middle finger.
He also told FOX 35 that he was unaware of Thursday's investigation and heard about it as it was being reported by news outlets. He said he's trying to stay out of the situation as much as possible.
What about the homeowners?
FOX 35 went to the home where the alleged incident took place. The homeowners briefly talked with a FOX 35 staff member, but declined to talk on the record or on camera about the situation. But, they were the ones to file the incident report with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
The Source
The Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orange County Fire Rescue Department provided information to FOX 35 on the hazardous materials call. On Friday, FOX 35 received the incident report filed with the Orange County Sheriff's Office on July 30, 2025. FOX 35's Stephanie Buffamonte also talked with the salesperson on Friday. The homeowner's briefly talked with a FOX 35 reporter, but declined an on-camera interview.
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