This is a good reminder to always keep an eye on your belongings while traveling, as cabin theft is a surprisingly common problem…
Continue reading: Traveler Steals $23,000 In Cash On Scoot Flight To Singapore, Gets Caught
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Funny how someone is carrying 20k cash and don’t pay attention to their belongings. I would hold on the cash throughout the flight. Also makes me wonder if the person carrying that much cash was doing it legally. Are there no limits on carrying cash?
As was mentioned, committing a felony en route to Singapore is probably not the smartest of ideas, then again neither is carrying enough cash to buy a used car. Regardless of whether the cash was legally declared or not, I would take better basic precautions.
All Vietnamese expats carry much much cash when entering the country and the customs officials look the other way, voluntarily or via bribery. You must carry enough USD to spend in developing countries, on you or with you without leaving it out of sight. In Taiwan, nobody accepts credit cards. Mainland Chinese are learning and adopting American societal ills fast and furious. I guess they were the reason why Alaska Airlines years ago stopped allowing booking award seats three days or less before the departure date.
I have had situations where I have needed to take large amounts of cash (approximately $5,000 USD) with me overseas and the stress of that is crazy, but normal precautions aren't difficult. I break it up into envelopes of $1,000 and hide it in 5 different places. I usually unzip the lining of my suitcase and hide one or two in there (different sides of the suitcase for each), hide 2 more in different internal zipper pockets of my backpack, and then carry one of them on me in my pants pocket. All bags have luggage locks on them while in transit, so it would take quite a bit of effort for it to get stolen (apart from the entire bag getting stolen), and at most if they were successful they'd likely just get one of the envelopes of $1,000 and not the entire $5,000.
South African has developed a pretty bad reputation for in-flight theft:
https://www.thecable.ng/passengers-robbed-mid-air-on-south-african-airways-flight
https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/108967/saa-passenger-took-pictures-of-mid-flight-robbery/
https://mg.co.za/article/2008-07-01-former-saa-hostess-fined-for-stealing-ring/
https://worldsfinestdestinations.net/south-african-airways-shameless-thieves-will-never-fly-saa-again-you-should-avoid-them-too/
I was on a LH flight FRA-IAD in the late aughts where we parked remotely and had moon buses shuttle us to the terminal. When the last flight attendant got on the bus I was on, she said that someone had a laptop stolen and that the police were going to search everyone's bags. I didn't have the heart to tell her about warrantless searches...
Why will you do it on a flight to Singapore?
Got caning, prison conditions are very bad(locked up 22 hours a day) compared to other developed countries, very strict laws.
You shouldn’t put cash in checked baggage. That’s even more stupid, along with those who put keys laptops and documents there.
With regards to the locks it’s naive to think they can’t be broken. It happens more frequently than you think. Why carry so much cash and not transfer it between banks. I’m always suspicious of people carrying tens of thousands.
Bizarre comment...cash is required in Taiwan at nightmarkets, hole-in-the-wall eateries, and some public transit. Hotels, department stores, and anywhere else where you might spend large sums of money accepts credit cards. ATMs are also ubiquitous. There's really no reason for visitors to carry large amounts of cash...
My sister had someone take her kindle out of her seat pocket while she was in the bathroom once. The crew did an announcement that they would have police meet the plane and no one was leaving until it was found. Someone came up to an FA and claimed someone left it in their seat. Ha!
There are a lot of countries where no warrats are needed when polica attempts to solve crimes.
@Icarus With the fees American banks are charging, it sometimes make sense to carry the money with you. I attended a car auction in the US and flew with $220,000 in cash.
The highlight was when the customs officer was counting the money in the backroom. He told: 'From now on you will not tell that you have so much cash with you. Not even if police asks. This is dangerous.'
As someone who has spent a few months in Taiwan this year... you couldn't be more wrong.
Maybe frugal habits like flying Scoot is how they can have $21k in cash around. I know many a high earning techie that fly Spirit or the equivalent whenever possible.
It wasn't checked luggage, it's my carryon luggage, so it's on the overhead right above me, and if someone has the time to pick the locks while I'm sitting right there then I'm not sure you quite understand how all of this works.
That amount of cash is definitely not enough to buy even a used car in Singapore.
Please give attribution for this hyperbolic claim: "Inflight theft is an extremely common occurrence". Does "Extremely common" mean that over 50% of passengers are robbed on over 50% of flights? Or would that mean theft affects one passenger per one million flights?
As a Vietnamese, the more serious question is: Why would someone carry 510 Mil VND ($23k) cash abroad? That’s an absurd of money by Vietnamese standard.
“it seems poorly thought out to do this on a flight to Singapore, given the country’s very strict laws, and the risk vs. reward analysis.”
This shows no understanding of how most people approach crime. Most of them do so in the certain belief that they personally won’t be caught. Therefore the punishment is irrelevant.
It’s why having a death penalty shows little effect on crime rates. People demanding ever-harsher sentences to “deter crime” seem unable to understand statistics.
If most people were just calculating machines working on the basis Ben suggests, society would be very different. As Faraday once famously asked (to make the point that some of life’s greatest joys were not amenable to desiccated calculation), “what use is a baby?”.
Never brought a single physical coin to Vietnam, neither has anyone I know. They do have ATMs there you know... Instead of talking about "developing" countries I suggest you actually visit one.
People try to gain money in many ways. We flew long hauls to the Orient and years ago this was happening then. Airlines don't like to publicize this kind of stuff.
Had to lock the cases put up in the stow away.
The personal bag next to you out of their reach.
Flights get dark, people go to sleep and the thief can come.
Take some caution.