An attempted robbery during a Facebook Marketplace meet-up went terribly wrong for one thief after the seller decided to take matters into his own hands.
Auckland resident Joker Lim listed his iPhone on the trading platform before setting a time and place to meet up with who he thought was a legitimate buyer.
During the exchange, Lim said he was asked about a charger, which wasn’t part of the deal.
That’s when things took a turn.
“I say I don’t have a charger when I turn around, he [ran away],” Lim told the Focus. “So I just chased him.
“I didn’t think about the safety or anything. I just run. I [didn’t] want to lose my money.”
Wearing only slippers on his feet, Lim took off on a five-minute foot chase down the road and through a park before catching the robber and taking back his phone.
He started to record his exchange with the man in which he questioned him over his identity and why he had run off.
The offender claimed to be a 17-year-old school student who wanted to steal the iPhone “for his family”.
In the video, he apologised and said he “learned his lesson”, claiming it was the first time he had done anything like it.
Lim filed a police report shortly after the incident, attaching screenshots from the video as evidence.
But after being left frustrated by the little communication he received from police, he posted the footage to TikTok.
It’s since accumulated half a million views.
“I got good comments that say we need more people like me, some more people like me to stand up to stop criminals,” Lim said.
Leaving not only those online surprised by his brave actions, but himself too, the incident has since inspired a career change for Lim, who has applied to become a police officer.
“I want to see if I can be a police officer and do something different,” he said. “I want to help people like me in the future.”
In a statement to Focus, a Police spokesperson said that “due to the minor nature of this incident, no loss in property and no threats or physical harm, Police have closed this file with the approval of the victim”.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.