Dh70,000 Rolex stolen on flight: Passengers on the airplanes have reported losing important items
A Rolex watch worth 70,000 dirhams was stolen on flight.
In a recent interview with the Khaleej Times, Arsalan Hameed, a former resident of the United Arab Emirates, described his recent trip from Abu Dhabi to Riyadh via Doha. "I completely blacked out when I saw that my cash and Rolex were missing from my bag," Hameed said.
Although the Pakistani national was in Abu Dhabi to celebrate Eid with his family, he was having a difficult time making his way back to Saudi Arabia, where he currently resides, because of the record rains that were affecting airline operations in the United Arab Emirates. He claims that he boarded a crowded flight to Doha, fatigued from his journey, after experiencing repeated flight delays and cancellations on his first flight.
Because he travels quite a bit, he says that he has "a habit" of falling asleep while flying, and he did so after he had placed his suitcase in the overhead compartment. He promptly boarded another flight to Riyadh after landing, and he did not care to check to see if his valuables were still in his carry-on baggage. Instead, he fell back asleep after putting his rucksack in the overhead bin.
Hameed did not become aware that his watch, which was valued at Dh73,000, as well as cash, which was valued at SAR3,000 and GBP260 (about Dh4,000), had been stolen during his journey of roughly 2.5 hours until he arrived at his residence.
Passengers from the United Arab Emirates have described the terrifying experience of losing items while in the air.
Unfortunately, he is not the only individual who has had such an experience, and while incidents of this nature occur all around the world, travelers from the United Arab Emirates have recently taken to social media to urge other passengers to be more vigilant.
Muhammad Salman Lakhany, a native of Sharjah, is yet another victim of this kind. In May of this year, during a short journey from Riyadh to Dubai, the foreigner discovered a fraudulent transaction totaling Dh18,803 using one of his cards, causing him great distress.
Upon inspecting his carry-on luggage, he discovered that he had sixteen credit cards and five debit cards, in addition to a sum of one thousand nine hundred dollars in cash.
Khaleej Times conducted an interview with a former member of the cabin crew headquartered in the United Arab Emirates to gain a better understanding of the frequency of such incidents. "General petty thefts aren't that commonplace on board flights, especially because of the grueling security processes in place," Bhavica Khatri stated in an interview. "However, when they do happen, they take place in a coordinated fashion."
During the course of her career, which has spanned over a decade, the Dubai resident, who is currently working as an entrepreneur and artist, stated that she has only been on two flights where organized groups attempted to steal from other passengers. These instances typically occur during night flights, when the lights are off, passengers are sleeping, and the cabin crew is relocating to their galleys.
"Very recently, around 3–4 years ago, there were thefts happening on one particular route—a long-haul night flight of 16–17 hours," she said in her interview. Based on the research that was conducted, it was discovered that this particular group of individuals would "come alive" after the lights were turned off. Upon catching the perpetrators, they would pretend to be searching for something they had "lost or misplaced" by opening the storage bins.
They did not appear to be in the same room together; rather, they sat apart from one another. One of them would portray themselves as having misplaced something, while the other would make an effort to assist them. "In this manner, they would attempt to open various racks of hats and put their hands through bags, small purses, and luggage in order to obtain whatever it is that they desire," Khatri added.
