A travel influencer has managed to film the frightening moment he was almost robbed.
Tom Van Den Heuvel was recording himself casually walking through the streets of Paris when a strange man approached him and said: “You are not allowed to film here.”
The 34-year-old, who has almost 4,000 followers, stood his ground and said he could do “whatever he wants” but the situation quickly escalated.
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The influencer tried to walk away but the man followed, repeatedly telling him that he had to stop recording.
Suddenly, he reached out to grab the device, saying “give me the phone” as Tom nudged his hand away.
“I was just filming the atmosphere [in the area], and when I walked down the street, this guy wanted to rob me,” Tom, from the Netherlands, told Need To Know.
“He first gave me an excuse about the fact I couldn’t film him.
“As you can see in the video he touched me.
“I think he was just testing me to be fair – we had an argument, pushed each other a little bit and that was the end of it.”
Tom managed to walk away from the situation with his phone still in his hand.
He shared the clip online where it amassed more than 400,000 views.
The incident took place at around 10pm on Monday (23 June) in an area known as Les Barbes, in Paris, France.
After Tom shared his video, viewers were left shocked by his encounter.
Gio said: “He’s definitely wanted for something if he’s so angry with being filmed for literally seconds as you passed him.”
A second viewer said: “Brave man. Could have been very bad.”
“Paris was horrible. Scary shit,” added TJ.
Jules questioned: “On what grounds can you not film? Why did he not like it?”
“Glad to see you stood your ground mate,” Shaun added.
Tom often shares clips from his adventures and has recently been to Ukraine and Venezuela.
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