Man stole a stranger’s jacket and thought he got away with it — then his ‘hot girl’ date revealed who had really been messaging him
What started as a missing jacket at a bar turned into an elaborate catfishing scheme — and the story still isn't over
One trip to a bar jolted the San Diego-based comedian Austin Locke (@austinisaboringname) into a fierce ordeal to find his lost jacket. At first, he adopted the innocent way of a straightforward conversation, but when a frank dialogue didn’t work, he had to head onto the road to deception. He made a fake Instagram account with a hot girl’s photo for catfishing the stranger who stole his jacket. One thing led to another, and he came face to face with the man, only to lose his jacket again. He filmed his “jacket chronicles” in a series of Instagram reels starting from June 9, 2026.
Burglary in the bar
The adventure began while Locke was at a bar. He left his jacket on a chair and found it missing when he returned. Locke asked other customers in the bar, but no one had any hint about his beloved apparel. At last, the clue came from the surveillance footage. The footage showed this strange man in a raspberry-colored T-shirt casually gathering the jacket from the chair, tugging it over his shoulders and slipping away. Strapped to his T-shirt was the fraternity label of the University of Southern California (USC).
Search in the hallway
Since the bar was near USC’s campus, Locke assumed that the man was a part of the university. Picking on it as an important clue, he headed to the frat house. While he was investigating the hallways, his eyes fell upon the photo of the suspected thief along with his name. Locke’s search revealed that the man graduated from USC two years ago. His first instinct was to open his Instagram and message the man about the jacket. No answer.
Tit for tat
The only recourse was to adopt a cunning strategy. He created a fake account and added the photo of a random attractive woman in the profile. As he anticipated, this time his message was reciprocated with a reply. After a few days of pretend flirting, the man agreed to meet him on a coffee date. The man wouldn’t have expected the surprise because when Locke approached him in the café, he asked, “Do I know you?” When he revealed that he used the girl’s account to meet him and get his jacket, the man barked, “You are a little psycho.”
When Locke insisted on getting his jacket back, the man finally revealed that he left it in the house of a girl he was dating. But he refused to go back to her house. While the man walked away, Locke was left riddled with another mystery to solve. Who was that girl? He took the hard way and spent hours messaging all the girls the man had followed on Instagram in the last few weeks. Lucky for him that two of them responded to him. Locke hasn’t updated yet on what happened next and whether or not he found his jacket.
Propensity of property thefts
Leaving personal belongings unattended for even a few minutes can make them easy targets for opportunistic theft. A guide published by Arizona State University's Center for Problem-Oriented Policing notes that only about one-third of completed thefts in the United States are reported to police, meaning many incidents never enter official crime statistics. The guide also found that unattended bags accounted for at least one-third of recorded thefts, highlighting how quickly items left on chairs or tables can disappear in busy cafés and bars.
'Never get between a man and his favorite jacket'
Locke’s quest to find his jacket attracted millions of people’s curiosity, many of whom flooded the comments section with the question: Did you get the jacket back? Others couldn’t stop laughing at how he is moving heaven and earth to recover his lost jacket. @alexamoss1 commented, “This is so unhinged I love it!” @autisticswagmachine joked, “Never get between a man and his favorite jacket.” @jjquonryder added, “Got my favorite jacket stolen from the coat check at a club 8 years ago. Haven’t let it go. Totally reasonable reaction.”
You can follow Austin Locke (@austinisaboringname) on Instagram for comedy skits and humorous content.
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