A man hit the headlines after staging his own death and appearing at his funeral to teach his family a lesson.
45-year-old David Baerten from Belgium is a content creator who came up with a controversial plan to get back at his “distant” family by pretending he died.
According to the TikToker, he let his wife and his children know all about his plan and even asked his daughter to participate in his “cruel” joke by posting a tribute to her father on social media.
“Rest in peace Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you,” the man’s daughter posted.
“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.”
Not only did the family announce David’s death, but they also planned a funeral and invited all of their relatives to the service.
When the ‘sad’ day arrived, however, David left his teary-eyed funeral guests in shock after popping out of a helicopter and revealing the funeral was just a part of his stunt.
“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,” Baerten said as he explained the reasoning behind his stunt.
“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.”
The 45-year-old also called his experiment a success saying that even though only half of his relatives showed up, others reached out to him after the stunt went viral.
“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,” he added.
The fake funeral received mixed responses on social media. While some people called the stunt “cruel” and “inappropriate,” others suggested he made a good point even though having a false funeral might not have been the best way to prove it.
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