Dad fakes his own death before flying into funeral by helicopter in ‘cruel’ TikTok stunt ‘to teach family a lesson’
A DAD faked his own death to teach his family a lesson before flying into his funeral in a helicopter.
David Baerten, 45, decided to take drastic action in a bid to remind his forgetful loved ones to treasure their time with him.
He plotted his elaborate prank with his wife and children, who helped him pull it off, to find out which of his relatives would care.
The TikTok creator, known as Ragnar le Fou, then roped one of his daughters into announcing his death hoax on social media.
She shared a convincing tribute to make the ruse more plausible, which managed to dupe friends and family.
It read: “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.”
David then organised a fake funeral for himself last weekend in Liege, Belgium, inviting a host of mourners to honour him.
But as dozens of his relatives dressed in black gathered to say goodbye, the prankster made a shocking entrance from the skies.
Instead of bursting out of a hearse, he swooped into the ceremony on a helicopter alongside a camera crew to capture the reaction.
“Cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral,” David said, according to The Times.
His stunned family were seen rushing towards him and embracing him, while others looked visibly confused by the stunt.
But the “pitiful” prank didn’t go down well with David’s 162,000 followers, who slammed his death hoax as “cruel”.
The dad was forced to explain himself after receiving a huge backlash online and revealed he wanted to teach his family a lesson about staying in touch.
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.”
David is yet to release the full video of him making his grand entrance in the chopper.
A fellow TikTok user who was attending the funeral shared footage of it landing in a field.
One of the dad’s close friends, Thomas Faut, posted a clip of him hugging his pal alongside the caption: “You got us.”
He said of the wacky reunion: “I swear I was crying and then I had the shock buddy, we love you very much.”
But David wasn’t too impressed with the turnout – as he moaned that “only half of my family came to the funeral.”
“That proves who really cares about me,” he said. “Those who didn’t come, did contact me to meet up. So in a way I did win.”
His fake funeral has received a mixed reaction online, with some of his fans proclaiming it was a valuable lesson for his loved ones.
But others weren’t too impressed with his deception and said the prank was in poor taste.
We previously told how a bonkers bloke faked his own death to see who would come to his funeral – but was left less than impressed with the result.
Baltazar Lemos, 60, from Curitiba, Brazil, decided to put his friendships to the test with the ultimate prank.
But unfortunately, his scheme went incredibly awry when his loved ones were left furious at the fake death plot.