Man fakes own death to teach his family a tough life lesson
A Belgian TikToker has become the subject of the internet’s scorn after playing a prank on the loved ones and mourners gathered to bid him farewell at what they believed to be his funeral.
They were under the assumption that the service was being held for the recently-departed David Baerten - their 45-year-old friend who was not, it turns out, dead after all.
Instead, Baerten had devised a plan with his wife and children to trick everyone into believing he’d passed on, all so that he could teach them a ‘valuable’ lesson in the importance of staying in touch.
In a bid to make Baerten’s friends and followers believe the lie, one of his daughters even posted to social media about his passing, writing “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.”
The ‘funeral’ was held near Liege for the TikToker - who uses the name Ragnar le Fou for his social media antics - with his family and friends coming together for what they thought was a final farewell. But as they prepared for that difficult task, things took a sharp turn.
Baerten, who had been alive the entire time, descended in a helicopter with a camera crew in tow to surprise them all. In a video later shared to social media, he could be heard telling them “cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral.”
Another user - who was present at the time - shared a clip of Baerten in the arms of his sobbing loved ones, while others took the opportunity to complain about the entire “joke”.
They were complaints that continued online, as the videos gained traction and many raced to condemn him for the heartless stunt.
“Really shocking, it should be punishable by law!” one user declared.
“I'm shocked,” another said, before asking how he’d been able to do that to those close to him.
“He wanted to see who would be there with his eyes,” one said, “what narcissism”.
Someone else agreed, noting that “you really have to be full of yourself to do such a thing.”
The feedback was so strong that Baerten was forced to explain his actions, claiming that “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.”
And while he is yet to share his own professional footage from the day, his plan had worked.
“Only half of my family came to the funeral,” he said. “That proves who really cares about me. Those who didn’t come, did contact me to meet up.
“So in a way I did win.”
Images: TikTok