The man who posted a clip of himself confronting a woman who ‘stole’ his phone charger on a flight has admitted that he took the video out of a desire to go viral.
In the popular footage seen by millions online, Eddie Orellano shoved his camera in the female passenger’s face and demands to have his ‘stolen’ charger returned to him.
They had been on a JetBlue flight when it was delayed. Passengers were told to disembark and Orellano left his charger in his seat.
The woman – who gave her name to DailyMail.com as Vanessa – picked it up, then offered to hand it to flight attendants.
When they refused to take it, she kept hold of it before returning to the plane for take-off. That’s when Orellano confronted her and accused her of theft.
Orellano waited nearly a year before uploading his exchange on TikTok.
And in an interview with Inside Edition on Thursday, he confessed he only posted it in the hopes of becoming internet famous.
‘So I said “I’m gonna put her on video”,’ he continued, adding he was suspicious of her because she gave him ‘negative energy right off the bat’.
The reporter told him: ‘I got to be honest, man. It just seems like you were trying to make a viral video.’
He replied honestly: ‘Yeah, and you’re probably right.’
Vanessa described her shocked reaction when Orellano approached her with his camera rolling.
‘He didn’t give anyone a chance to even say anything,’ she said. ‘He just kept coming at me being like “you stole it, why did you steal it, you stole my charger.”‘
Vanessa said all that really happened was she picked the charging device ‘up off the ground’ because passengers were told to take their belongings with them.
Eddie Orellano conceded that he was causing a scene and was ‘trying to make a viral video’
In the original video shared by Orellano online, he claimed he’d left the Apple iPhone charger plugged into his seat when the pilot let passengers off to stretch their legs due to delays
Vanessa said that Orellano was ‘definitely trying to cause a scene’ when he took the video.
‘It seems like this worked out okay for him since he just sold the video and can hopefully buy some chargers,’ she said with a smirk.
Vanessa revealed that she had received death threats after the clip was posted.
‘This charger was found on the ground of an empty flight where we were told to remove all possessions because we didn’t know if we were getting back on the same flight due to technical issues,’ she said.
Vanessa spoke to DailyMail.com earlier this week to insist she did no wrong
Vanessa said she was seated toward the back of the plane, so was one of the last passengers to disembark. She claims she took the charger from the ground beneath an empty seat in front of her, and tried to hand it over to crew.
‘I told the stewardess, and she would not take it because they cannot be liable for passenger possessions,’ she said.
While the initial video suggested Vanessa was a thief who unplugged the charger from the seat and tried to sneak it into her bag, she insists there was ‘no stealthy behavior’ and that she in fact made it very obvious to the people around her what she was doing.
‘I picked it up off the ground,’ she said. ‘Off the ground. I did not unplug it.’
Vanessa said the vile outpouring of hatred toward her is what prompted her to share her side of the story.
‘So many of you are quick to believe I’m some sort of evil villain over a phone charger on the ground of an empty flight that I did attempt to hand to crew,’ she said.
‘This man is yelling in my face the second I came on board, of course I didn’t greet him with a smile.’
In the original video shared by Orellano online, he claimed he’d left the Apple iPhone charger plugged into his seat when the pilot let passengers off to stretch their legs due to delays.
He said a fellow passenger told him a blonde woman had unplugged the charger and rolled it up and put it in her bag, prompting him to angrily confront her when they re-boarded.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk