Read More
A passenger fell victim to a crafty thief aboard a Hong Kong Airlines flight, who stole and swapped his Hong Kong Dollar banknotes for Indonesian Rupiah.
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The passenger, surnamed Chow, recently traveled with his girlfriend and her family on an early morning flight to Osaka, Japan. Chow brought along 100 banknotes - totaling HK$50,000 - which he planned to exchange for Japanese Yen upon arrival.
Chow said a flight attendant asked him to place his backpack in the overhead compartment instead of under the seat. As the luggage compartment above his seats was full, Chow put the bag in the overhead locker three to four rows ahead of where he was seated.
He said he fell asleep during the flight and got his bag back upon arrival in Japan.
He only found the stack of bills - except the three notes on both ends -were swapped with Indonesian Rupiah banknotes when he took out the belongings on a train in Japan.
There were a total of 153 banknotes in the denomination of IDR2,000, equivalent to approximately HK$153.
In response to Chow's case, Hong Kong Airlines said passengers should immediately notify the crew to call the police if they find any belongings being stolen so that the officers can board the aircraft for investigation. It added that the airlines do not have the authority to inspect passengers' belongings.
As of November last year, the Airport District Police received 20 reported cases related to cabin theft.
