A MAN flew 4,000 miles to track down the thief who stole his Apple AirPods.

Lewis Ellis forked out £2,300 on locating the earphones after watching them travel from Qatar to Nepal to Thailand and back over the course of five months.

The 31-year-old realised he had left the buds behind after he got off a flight from Bangkok to Doha.

Airline staff told him he couldn't go back to the plane to retrieve them, but not to worry as he would be in the same seat on his way home to Manchester.

Much to his dismay, after competing in a male beauty pageant and settling in for the seven-hour journey, they were nowhere to be seen.

He later decided to use his iPhone's "Find My" feature to see where they had got to, and was stunned to discover they were on the move.

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Lewis watched as his AirPods hopped from Qatar to Kathmandu, Nepal, before heading to a small village in the Himalayan mountains.

They then took a short jaunt to Thailand before finally coming to rest back in Doha.

While they were stationary, Lewis made the "irrational" decision to fly over to claim them back.

"I had the joy of watching them travel the world for no less than five months," Lewis said.

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"But I was getting more and more annoyed and I kept asking Qatar Airways staff why they were on holiday.

"At one point the cheeky b******s actually started sharing them as the left and right buds appeared on opposite sides of the village.

"Then I just couldn’t stand it any longer, so I decided to track them down."

Despite his friends describing him as "the pettiest man in Britain", Lewis spent £1,200 on the flights, £500 on a hotel and another £300 to hire a car.

But, more than 4,000 miles later, he was finally reunited with his earphones in a building owned by airport staff.

Lewis, who starred on the 2019 series of The Apprentice, said: "My friends literally said 'this is the pettiest thing ever'. 

"I'll admit it was petty, yes. But I literally ran around jumping for joy when I found them.

"I honestly didn't think I would. I was so happy I couldn't talk.

"Everyone giggled at the thought of a millennial treasure hunt across the world.

"My mates called me Liam Neeson, except I have a very particular lack of set skills."

I'll admit it was petty, yes. But I literally ran around jumping for joy when I found them.

Lewis, with the help of his pal Tom and local man Karim, constantly checked his locator app to hunt down the buds.

The trio honed in on an apartment block then went door to door trying to connect to them via Bluetooth.

Once they made a connection, they knew they had the right flat and, thankfully, the earphones were handed over without any trouble.

Lewis said: "We high-fived and cheered. It was all fun and games and there were no hard feelings.

"As we left, one person apologised for the inconvenience, but I was just happy to have them back.

"I had the box with the serial number on it so was ready to prove they were mine anyway."

Lewis appeared on series 15 of The Apprentice, and made it through to the final five.

He later got into a Twitter dispute with Lord Sugar, and got a tattoo of the businessman posing as Al Pacino, which he dubbed Sir Alan Pacino.

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Lewis, who runs an agency called Hussel Marketing, also had a stint on Open House: The Great Sex Experiment, and signed up to website OnlyFans to sell raunchy snaps.

Qatar Airways has been approached for comment.

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