A property speculator from Luxembourg City woke up with a feeling of immense regret on Saturday upon realizing that, during the night of heavy drinking, he bought a round of expensive housing units for total strangers.
Trying to piece together the night, Pascal Baptista, 35, remembered that after emptying several bottles of wine while dining at an Italian restaurant with a friend, they went to a trendy bar in the Glacis where he drank at least two beers and a cocktail.
It was then that the details of the evening get fuzzy, but Baptista says he vaguely recalls his friend Vincent, a fellow real-estate investor, meeting two women and after a minute of chat, buying them each a parking spot in Gasperich.
“We ended up in Clausen, but I have no idea how we got there, but yeah, there was an AC/DC song playing, and I jumped on the table and did something resembling the chicken dance,” he said to himself on Tuesday morning, still too numb to really take in what he had done. “And someone bought me a drink, so then it was my turn, and oh god no.”
“I remember cupping my hands and saying, who wants a place in Hesperange, Rollingergrund, Bonnevoie, or any other up-and-coming neighborhood?” he said. “Anyone want a residential unit whose value will go up 10 percent each year? Because I’m buying.”
With the help of his friend, Baptista was able to piece together the following sequence of events, during which most of the other patrons raised their hands and cheered. Baptista drunkenly called a property agent, his private banker, and a friend who is a notary. He then purchased two dozen properties on the spot and signed them over to total strangers.
The only good thing about the night, says Baptista, is that he was prevented from spending more money after he and Vincent found themselves in a cabaret near the Gare. A woman working there asked Baptista if he would buy her a commercial building in Gasperich but he was too drunk by that point to sign anything.
