This is the moment a fitness influencer cashes in on her fame by hurling more than GBP 1,500 in banknotes from a helicopter over a packed beach in a desperate bid for likes.
Instagram health guru Bel Ponciano took to the sky above Balneario Camboriu, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, on 21st April with a bag full of cash.
Video footage from the helicopter shows Bel chucking wads of cash out of the window as the aircraft swoops low over the Praia Central beach.
Local media said that she chucked out banknotes worth BRL 10,000 (GBP 1,559) before her bag was empty.
Beneath her, another piece of footage shows beachgoers scrambling to pick up fistfuls of the cash.
Some hurl themselves on the ground desperate to collect up the cash and one woman with a toddler in her arms seems to be at the centre of the chaos.
One of the people who filmed the scene said: “Only in Balneario Camboriu would a person throw money from a helicopter. It’s unbelievable, people.”
And on Instagram, Bel said: “Never give up on your dreams, even if everything happens to make you want to do so […] What a gift you received on the beach today, right?”
But the stunt apparently backfired and barely raised even a blip to boost her 102,0000 Instagram followers.
Worse, some of them were openly hostile to the cash giveaway.
One said: “She thinks the poor live on scraps.”
While another said: “True humiliation.”
Bel and her pilot might also face an investigation into their low-flying buzz over the packed beach just a few hundred yards from coastside tower blocks.
Aviation rules normally forbid any helicopter flights under 1,000 feet, especially near high-rise buildings.
At times Bel’s helicopter seemed barely 300 feet off the ground.
It is unclear if the police are investigating the stunt.
