Theft onboard flights

By the time you read this, I should be in San Diego with my family, starting to enjoy the sights, checking out its visitor lures. Our main objective is to bring the little ones to a safari and to Sea World, where they can interact or see the animals up close. Of course, my foodie son Allen Arvin has his mealtime itinerary down pat, for all of us to follow. Reservations done through the internet so we are sure of seats as we are a family of four kids – ages 6 years old down to 2 and a half! – and five adults. We have rented two vans to be mobile as we came in through Los Angeles and drove all the way down here.  We will then drive to Las Vagas (Nevada) in time for my birthday – March 26 – to be with my sister Joy and her husband Steve Sia.  Joy just got her “green card” (immigrant status) this February, so it will be a double celebration.

I was quite vigilant on the trip here as I got an alert in Facebook about someone who got robbed while aboard a plane flying into Hong Kong. When the plane was an hour into landing, the victim noticed someone open the overhead bin and transferred his leather bag, but he thought nothing of it. Upon landing, he retrieved his bag from the other overhead bin where he saw his bag as the only one inside.  He got suspicious and opened it, only to find out that all of his wife’s jewelry pieces and cash were missing.  Shouting an alert of the robbery, he and his wife then tried to block passengers from disembarking, while the cabin crew called ground security.

While pacifying impatient co-passengers, the victim asked them to check their own bags for possible thefts.  True enough, three others also realized they were robbed.  When police boarded the plane and apprehended the culprit, the latter brought out cash, jewelry, camera equipment and many falsified travel documents amounting to hundred thousands of dollars.  The police disclosed that this kind of criminal activity is reaching “epidemic proportions.”  They purportedly have 33 similar cases since December 2012 on flights to Hong Kong.  These undesirables (most of them are from one town in China) would occupy back seats and watch where passengers would load carry-on luggage in overhead compartments behind or away from their assigned seats.  The robbers would pretend to retrieve belongings while unsuspecting passengers sleep or watch movies. Then they would return the looted bags to their respective bins.

An added warning:  business class passengers are also not safe! Apparently, these criminals have enough money to pay their way in business class and do their shady actuations in there! However, with the limited seats in business class, plus the privacy compartments in each, I think suspicious actuation is easier to detect, as against the crowded set-up in Economy.

So, please observe the following necessary precautions:

1) lock your hand luggage before you put it/them into the overhead bin

2) beware of putting your handbag under the seat – a passenger was robbed by her seatmate while she slept!

3) wear/keep your valuables attached to your body at all times – a money bag will come in handy tied around the neck or around the waist

As we are into this topic, a gentle reminder to leave expensive jewelry at home, bring only enough cash to tide you over “cash only” situations ( Credit cards are most convenient when traveling! You can always avail of the cash advance amenity they carry.) and have important travel documents in hand at all times – passports, plane tickets, travel insurance, entrance tickets/membership cards, etc.  In some places in Europe (with many gypsies or being known as a haven of pickpockets), Southeast Asia and India, it is best to have your valuables in a shoulder bag strung across your breast, with the zipper tag in front.  Always hang the bag in front of your body at all times, not at your side or worse, at the back.  Never put cash all in one purse. Put only small denominations there, for fast cash payments.  Hundred dollar/fifty euro bills in a separate wallet placed at the side of the bag next to your body. Nobody must see you get out wads of big bills in public – like magnet to pickpockets!

Travel safely!