Tony Aubéa friendly technology expert and tiktoker Canadian, was in August at Belgium. Everything seemed to be going well, until he made a huge mistake: taking the train. It’s not that boarding a train is a problem in itself (although the Gare du Midi in Brussels currently resembles a war zone and is testing the country’s political and social seams) or trying to get to the airport. The mistake, the huge and common mistake, is to assume that rapid public transport in the European capital is a safe space. What was supposed to happen happened: They stole his backpack with his computer and his documentation and he found himself stuck, angry and frustrated.

For now, a little story. If the newspaper had to count every time a clueless tourist’s belongings were stolen, each edition would look like the Yellow Pages. The interesting thing happened next, because Aubé was so angry and had so much free time while waiting for his country’s embassy to open on Monday and process a new passport, that he decided to devote all his resources, his efforts and his hatred to catching the thieves, who did not count on his audacity.

He tiktoker, who works in Silicon Valley, told his epic story – and there is no more appropriate word – on his social networks and became a legend in Belgium. It all started with something that happened to all of us or to someone close to us: perfectly detecting where stolen items are located in the city. Let’s not be mistaken, it’s almost always in the same neighborhoods (and especially Molenbeek), the same people and with complete impunity. His backpack was equipped with locators, but the thieves quickly got rid of them. However, at dawn and by surprise, your computer gave a sign of life, and Tony was able to locate it quite accurately. Full of hope, he called the police. But what happened to all of us or a loved one happened, and it has three phases so studied that it’s surprising it doesn’t have its own name.

The first is adrenaline, when you think you’re a spy and you can almost taste the metallic taste on your tongue moments before knocking on the criminals’ door while leading a GEO team. The second is one of absolute desolation and helplessness, when the agents, of course, told him that ugh. What Sir yes yes, that we understand it perfectly, but that all of this is very difficult. That the sign indicated a neighborhood but that it was impossible to know which house, which apartment or which apartment. It’s almost better to resign. The third is when what your body asks you is to go find the unfortunate yourself and make them pay. The usual thing is that you put it on WhatsApp and with your friends or family you get angry, you imagine the bravado, before accepting that they are the bad guys, but in reality you are not a hero. Most of us were there, alone and without business, but Tony was living his life. day of fury and it was unstoppable.

His video explains that he went where the GPS indicated and He waited hours to recognize who he thought were the perpetrators.. With images and a lot of grace, he recreates how he also followed them around the city, until he realized it was them, as they went to a computer store to sell Objects. He called the police, who kept making excuses. So he took his fight even further, returning to the original location before being detected and waiting in hiding for six hours until nightfall, when they returned. He was even about to take out his drone to record them through the window. Now knowing exactly where his computer was, he tried again, and this time, miraculously, The Police came to dismantle a major network of thieves, with hundreds of mobile phones, tablets and computers. Moral: be careful with trains and with the geeks With time.