A heated exchange between two passengers on a flight has gone viral on TikTok with 13.8 million views so far, sparking debate about who was truly at fault.
The argument began when a man confronted a woman who he claims had taken his iPhone charger without asking.
The man recorded the incident and shared it on TikTok, showing the moment the woman admitted to taking the charger, stating she grabbed it because “nobody was on the flight.”
When he asked why she “stole” it, the woman responded: “Is it stealing if I give it back?”
As tensions rose, a different passenger also intervened, siding with the woman and telling him: “You’re being ridiculous. She said she was going to give it back.”
The man stood his ground, saying: “No, you’re being ridiculous. She stole something without asking.”
Eventually, the woman returned the charger, pulling it from her bag.
As support for both the man and the woman came pouring in, the man posted a follow-up video.
He explained that the flight had been delayed multiple times, and passengers were briefly allowed to leave the plane. He had accidentally left his charger on his seat, and another passenger informed him that a woman had taken it.
He argued that she should have given the charger to a flight attendant instead of keeping it in her bag and that her dismissive attitude was why he shared the year-old video in the first place. He also added that a flight attendant offered to call the authorities, but he declined to avoid further delays, emphasising: “She wasn’t trying to do a good deed.”
The woman, ‘Vanessa Clover’ on TikTok later posted a video explaining her own side of the story. Referring to herself as the “charger thief”, she admits that the whole incident had been “blown out of proportion” and that she was getting “bombarded with harassments and death threats.”
She claimed that she found the charger on the ground of an “emptying flight” where the passengers were asked to take all their possessions as they were not sure if they would be getting back on the same plane.
She reiterated that she “did not unplug it, it was on the ground” and that other passengers saw her picking it up, displaying “no stealthy behaviour” of any sort.
She also added that she was going to “immediately give him back his charger,” but was first trying to get her luggage in order, and also get some space from the “aggressive and erratic man” for her own safety.
At the end of the video, she admits that she “could’ve acted more gracefully.”
