Man fakes own death and turns up at funeral in helicopter to prank family
A dad faked his own death and then dramatically arrived at the funeral in a helicopter in an attempt to try and teach his family ‘a life lesson’.
David Baerten staged an extraordinary prank in Belgium to see how his loved ones would react after he died.
The 45-year-old TikTok creator claimed he wanted to pull off the elaborate stunt because he had lost touch with his wider family.
He sought the help of his wife and children who went along with his plan – and his daughter even posted a fake tribute to her father on social media.
Before the hoax funeral near Liege last weekend, she wrote: ‘Rest in peace Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you.
‘Why is life so unfair? Why you? You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you.
‘I love you! We love you! We will never forget you.’
Mr Baerten, who is known as Ragnar le Fou online and has 162.00 followers on TikTok, arrived at the funeral with a film crew in a helicopter.
He said: ‘What I see in my family often hurts me. I never get invited to anything.
‘Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated.
‘That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson, and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them.’
Another TikTok user, who was in attendance, shared a video of the helicopter landing in a field before Mr Baerten gets out and is swamped by relatives hugging him.
The prank has been met with heavy criticism by many social media users who labelled it a ‘cruel joke’ and said it was ‘pitiful’.
But Mr Baerten says it ‘proves who really cares about me’, despite the backlash he’s faced, reports The Times.
He said ‘only half of my family came to the funeral’ but other relatives have reached out to him since.
He added: ‘Those who didn’t come, did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win.’
His friend Thomas Faut posted footage of the two hugging after Mr Baerten revealed he was still alive and admitted: ‘You got us.’
Mr Faut said: ‘I swear I was crying and then I had the shock buddy, we love you very much.’
Last week, a woman was declared dead at hospital and placed in a coffin but later woke up and banged on the inside of the lid to let people know she was in-fact very much alive.
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