A flight attendant – presumably working for United Airlines – performed a citizens arrest on another crewmember for stealing an inflight snack box. Now, she’s been suspended and the episode has gone viral.
The crewmember shared the story herself about the incident, which happened with a major U.S. airline. American Airlines barely has snack boxes. Delta and Alaska do sell snack boxes.
One flight attendant took a snack box from buy on board service. One of their colleagues saw this as theft of company property and decided not only to confront the offender or even to report the incident – they called for the company to meet the aircraft and attempted a “citizen’s arrest” right there at the airport, treating the incident as a criminal matter.
Here’s how things started. The flight attendant identified that there were four snack boxes left after service,
I always fly lead, but I like to keep on top of everything that is happening in my cabin, so I went to the aft galley and inspected the carts and made sure everything was packed up and completed according to company policy. Thankfully, it was, which saved me needing to file an incident report, and I counted there were four snack boxes remaining.
But then she found there were only three snack boxes left later on. And remembered the flight attendant who said earlier that they hadn’t packed enough food. So they asked the captain to call for a supervisor to meet the gate, and tried to detain the crew:
So to ensure the security of company property, on the descent, I went to double-check the carts and found there were only three snack boxes left. I did not raise it with the crew member but immediately rang the Captain and requested a supervisor meet us at the gate. By the time all pax had disembarked, the supervisor had still not arrived, so I told the crew they were unable to leave and they were not under any circumstances to touch or move their baggage.
The suspected thief grabbed her bag and tried to leave, but our Inspector Javert took the bag and blocked her exit with a galley cart. A supervisor finally arrived, searched the flight attendant’s bag, but no snack box was found.
Management suspended the flight attendant who attempted the citizen’s arrest for assault and unlawful detention. Crew ‘policing’ each other isn’t new—flight attendants are often on the hook for inventory, and taking company property is a firing offense. But this usually entails a report to a supervisor and internal investigation.
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
Well, heck, talk about petty BS. A citizen’s arrest for a snack box that WAS consumed in flight. I think the arrestor needs to attend S.E.R.E. School, might teach ’em a thing or two. Probably not.
I cannot imagine working with this analretentive flight attendant. Good luck to those who have to put up with this colleague.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MPmBoRA7bGM
You vill do your job, und you vill like it!!!
Just demote her now. Nobody will want to work a shift as their supervisor. All said and done, her actions are in-line with the lunacy now in the Stupid States of America.
Well I see the mental health crisis in Western Culture is now seeping to the ranks of air crew. If said flight attendant was so worried about another flight attendant stealing a $3 box of junk food that even 7/11 wouldn’t sell she should have notified a supervisor. Not think she’s Inspector Callahan from Dirty Harry.
WAIT. SO WHERE IS THE SNACK BOX????
Like Mutiny on the Bounty and the strawberries.
Nobody likes a snitch!
Do Premium Airlines have this problem?
“These talking over the public address system, think they are so darn damn important don’t they; position flight attendants,”
are a real delight for the guests i’m sure too!
Easy solution is more Chick-fil-A locations at all airports as this might satisfy the hungry flight attendant on the go needs! (;
The complaining flight attendant should have gone into law enforcement instead.
I’d be waiting for her somewhere away from the jet bridge
I bet she thought she would get a promotion and a raise for uncovering this egregious plot to defraud the airline!
@jns: No, the last thing we need to do is give this person actual law enforcement powers.
Every FA I know has a stash of mini liquor bottles. They are excellent instruments of customer service recovery: They cost the airline MAYBE 50 cents, and the passenger perceives them as worth $10, so the airline does not really track inventory on them. No inventory means every FA I know has a stash of mini liquor bottles, which I always assumed was an undocumented perk of being an FA to compensate for the low wages especially for entry level FAs. I would not be surprised if there’s a line item in the budget for “FA related on-board consumables compensation/shrinkage” that the airline just assumes happens but can’t make explicit because operating in countless jurisdictions and booze..
At least they suspended the right flight attendant! You can’t make this s$it up!
Minis actually cost closer to $3.50ish. Local municipalities love to tax them.
The retail cost to the airlines is about $1.25 to $3.00- add in local taxes & then handling fees by the local flight kitchen. Its even more expensive in states where the government controls all liquor sales.
Will the head United Airlines flight attendant conduct an intensive body cavity search including a deep anal probe of all passengers when discovering an inventory dscrepency of a missing Biscoff cookie?
Thanks @Floyd da barber that’s what running through my mind.
I just want to ‘second’ @Ken A’s brilliant, reasonable idea. Fair’s fair. Now, drop those drawers!
People who do crap like that tend to be the guest of honor at crowbar parties.
Delta has snack boxes
Sounds like she’s a descendant of Barney Fife.
How ridiculous. Her name is mud now. Nobody likes a snitch, and there are consequences for every snitch. Flight attendants remind me of nurses; they love putting their noses in everyone’s business.
Inspector Javert? You’ve been pranked.
Wait was a proper strip search done on the suspect snack box thief?
Everyday we can count on reading about some flight attendant drama.
The FA has since deleted the post from Reddit, changing the title of the thread to “I’ve been suspended for conducting a citizens arrest on another (thieving) FA.” Pobrecita, I’m sure there’s a job that would suit you with ICE.
Underlying problem: tons of anger, frustration, angst required to do something this stupid. Doubt the FA smiled much during the flight, few kind words for the other staff. And that the Captain didn’t come back to see what was going on: he must not have been surprised things had gotten so out of hand. Time to remind FA’s, we’re having remedial courses in Aggression Management. (Or have Valium-to-go in every Ready Room.)