‘Box demon’ in York County identified, say police. The lack of publicly available details has some neighbors concerned.

It looked like a clip from a cheap horror movie.

A person dressed in a colorful, Snuggy-like jumper walks up to a South Central Pennsylvania home with a box, activating the Ring camera with the tap of a finger about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

A dulcet lullaby tune worthy of a child’s playroom plays in the background.

“Hi, I’m the box demon,” they say, tilting their head this way and that, bringing into focus a paper plate that’s been turned into a crude mask with black jagged teeth and hastily drawn red eyes. The “face” has multicolored petals adorning the border of the plate.

“This box is a gift for you,” the person says before walking away.

Hours later, Natalie Knotts, 29, stumbled onto the box perfectly placed in the center of the doormat around 7 a.m. as she left for work. She alerted her other relatives in the home, who then pulled up the footage on the Ring app.

The North York Borough family did not recognize the person on camera, nor did they know what the empty box left behind is supposed to represent. They decided they should alert the Northern York County Regional Police Department and posted the video on their local Facebook group to warn others of the bizarre behavior.

Within 24 hours, the police department announced it had “identified and spoken to the ‘Box Demon,’” adding that there were no public-safety concerns but offering few other details. Calls to the department for additional information went unanswered Friday.

Still, Knotts said the ripple effects feel far from over for her family as even they haven’t been told who the culprit was or why their house was chosen. Knotts was struck by the fact that the individual headed toward a main road after the incident.

“I’m like, you went by like 12 to 15 other houses, and if you were looking for attention with the Ring camera, you had several options,” she said.

The incident, which naturally went viral after the police department shared a 20-second clip of camera footage with sound, has divided some in the community. Knotts said it has been particularly frustrating to see people on the internet suggest her family is somehow involved and trying to score 15 minutes of fame with a hoax.

Knotts said that while the family tried to keep the footage from her 7-year-old daughter, the girl saw it anyway, recognizing the Roblox character her mother had initially missed.

In the Roblox game “Dandy’s World,” the villainous characters are called twisteds.

The “Twisted Dandy” is a destructive character in the game, causing lethal damage in its attacks. When it appears before players, it is followed by a lullaby version of “Clair de Lune,” not unlike what was captured by the Ring camera in North York Borough this week — the suspect brought their own music.

“Symbolically, that’s a little concerning,” said Knotts, adding that even she is a little nervous at night and her daughter has been scared of “killer flowers in her room” for the past several days.

Plenty shrugged off the visit as a prank, not worthy of any media attention. Others pointed out that while it’s not a crime to be creepy, things could have gone south for the suspect had they encountered more reactive homeowners.

Still, many are wondering why authorities haven’t released more information on the culprit, even if it is only to say the incident involves a minor, as some internet sleuths suspect given the disguise.

“Whoever the person is, regardless of any of the circumstances, I hope they take this as a learning lesson,” said Knotts. “You 1,000% can’t be visiting people’s homes after hours like that.”