Man who accused woman of stealing his charger in viral TikTok admits he did it for fame

A woman has been receiving harassment and death threats since Eddie Orellano filmed a viral video confronting her for allegedly stealing his charger. Now, he has admitted he filmed and shared the video just for clout.

Even before his admission, further details of the incident arose that suggested his accusations against the woman may have been false. Recently, Orellano posted a video to TikTok accusing a woman of taking his charger because she “thought no one would notice.” Daily Mail quickly picked up the video and posted it to its official TikTok channel, which garnered almost 10 million views. In the video, Orellano points the camera at a young woman boarding a plane, asking her, “Excuse me, did you take my charger?” The woman confirms that she has it, leading him to demand why she took it. She tries to explain and tell him she’ll give it back as soon as she has a second to put her stuff down, but he interrupts her, continuing to demand why she took it “without permission.”

The entire time she’s trying to get to her seat and pull out the charger, Orellano continues berating her over taking the charger. A woman beside him pleads, “Ed, Ed, Ed, it’s okay. Sit down.” However, nothing seems to appease Orellano, who starts announcing her alleged theft to everyone on the flight.

Daily Mail painted the woman in a poor light, calling it “shocking” how she “brazenly” snatched the “pricey Apple phone charger” plugged into Orellano’s seat. However, as many may have suspected from his overblown reaction in the video, there was more to the story.

The true story behind the viral phone charger theft video

Following the video’s release, the woman identified herself as Vanessa Clover and posted a TikTok sharing her story. In the video, she revealed the incident was actually from a year ago, and she hadn’t wanted to give it any more attention. However, she was forced to speak out as she was “getting bombarded with harassment and flooded with death threats.” According to her, she found the charger lying on the ground unattended while deplaning after passengers were told to remove all their belongings. Trying to be helpful, she picked it up and tried to give it to the flight attendant, but the attendant refused to take it.

As soon as she got back on the plane and was asked by Orellano about it, she immediately told him she would return it. Clover admits she could have been more “graceful” during the confrontation, but she pointed out she was dealing with the stress of boarding a plane with all her luggage and her “20-pound cat” while Orellano continuously yelled at her. She also claimed that Orellano’s unruly behavior continued well into the flight and that she even had to be escorted to passenger pickup when they landed because the crew was concerned for her safety.

Meanwhile, a man who claimed he was on the flight with Clover and Orellano posted a TikTok corroborating Clover’s account.

After these details surfaced, Orellano admitted the whole video was an attempt to get famous. In an interview with Daily Mail, he confirmed the video was a year old, but he had held onto it in hopes of going viral. Not only did he post the video in hopes of fame, but he may have even orchestrated the whole incident in the first place. Speaking about how Clover gave him “negative energy,” he stated, “So I said, ‘I’m gonna put her on video.'” When the interviewer commented that it seemed like Orellano was just “trying to make a viral video,” Orelleno confirmed this was true. He stated, “Yeah, and you’re probably right.”

While he didn’t admit to fabricating the allegations against Clover, his acknowledgment that fame motivated him suggests he exaggerated his reaction and the accusations for show. However, he has not yet apologized to Clover, the unsuspecting woman he targeted just to go viral. Not only did he put her in a very uncomfortable and frightening situation on the plane, but he made her susceptible to harassment and threats from millions of people across the globe an entire year after the ordeal occurred.

The video he made will follow Clover around for years. Despite all the information that has come out, many commenters on the viral video have continued mocking and attacking Clover, refusing to believe her just because she’s a woman. While many have criticized Orellano’s extreme reaction to the situation, few have called him out for attempting to destroy Clover’s reputation just because he wanted attention. Although his videos about the incident went viral, and he successfully gave them to the media, it doesn’t seem he has attained as much fame as he hoped. He still has under 6,000 followers on TikTok, while Clover, who just created her account to address the allegations, already has 12.5k followers.

At the same time, it shouldn’t have even been possible for Orellano’s video to go viral. It truly was never serious enough to captivate the internet and especially not worth threatening a woman over. It’s quite sad that people are so desperate to catch a woman doing something wrong that this whole incident blew up in the first place.