Travelers are stealing everything from airport lounges that isn’t bolted down. That surprises me, because there’s nowhere with more cameras watching you than inside an airport. There’s nowhere with more law enforcement agencies (DEA, CBP, FBI, TSA, local police to name a few). And every passenger in the lounge has identified themselves when checking in.

Take Capital One lounges, where they’re actually planning for theft. These lounges have interesting, artistic cups. But it’s not just the part of the cup that you see, take a look at what’s underneath them.

You’re not supposed to take the cups, but they also know that people are going to do it anyway – so they might as well get a branding benefit out of it. Here’s the one from the lounge in Las Vegas,

On permanent loan from Capital One Lounge

Here’s the bottom from the Capital One lounge at Washington Dulles.

I’ve been told that passengers were taking artwork from Capital One lounges (they now have to be bolted down) and books from the bathrooms.

Capital One Las Vegas Lounge Bathroom

Capital One Washington Dulles Lounge Bathroom

Who takes the books from the bathroom like they never saw that ‘Seinfeld’ episode?

People take flatware from their meals on planes. I’m sure they’re taking the utensils from Capital One lounges, from American Express lounges, and indeed anything else off of the buffets that can be taken without making a mess.

Delta Sky Club customers were getting scolded for stealing fruit but at least that’s a consumable you’re supposed to take as long as you’re eating it in the lounge (and taking a single banana with you seems more than reasonable, Capital One actually has a ‘grab and go’ designed to encourage passengers to take food from their lounges). Taking the artwork, furniture, and forks is something else altogether.

Of course, this behavior is incredibly common at hotels as well. In fact, it’s even more common there. You don’t have carry-on limits!

A single hotel has saved $16,000 per month by reducing its towel thefts each month from 4,000 down to 750 by attaching washable RFID tags to its towels. I assume that they aren’t actually tracking down towel thieves, rather by letting guests know that the towels are tagged this serves as a deterrent. Presumably the deterrent would work just as well by telling guests that the RFID tags are in the towels, without any need to make the actual investment, at least as long as they are able to keep their lack of technology investment a secret.

The Nairobi Hilton once prosecuted a guest for stealing two towels and they received a two year sentence. One study found that guest nationality correlated with preference for stealing specific kinds of things from hotels:

• Germans and Brits mainly take towels, bathrobes, and toiletries
  
• Austrians prefer dishes and coffee machines
  
• Americans often steal pillows and batteries
  
• Italians favor wine glasses
  
• French target TVs and remote controls

Forty nine hotels reported mattresses being stolen in a two year period. How does a guest even do this without getting caught? Even if staff don’t get noticed walking through the lobby with a mattress, when housekeeping goes into the room to turn it for the next guest, and finds the mattress gone, the hotel knows who stayed there last.

In 2018 a family was caught on video in Bali with items stolen from the hotel they stayed at packed in their luggage. The hotel demanded they open their bags for inspection and a big argument ensued. As the bags are searched one stolen item after another gets revealed.

We’ve heard about a grand piano stolen from a Sheraton lobby, and about guests who steal televisions from their room. Even door hinges have been stolen. The Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire (the Pretty Woman hotel) had a fireplace stolen.

I used to not worry about leaving my belongings unattended in an airport lounge – or at least in a first class lounge. The broader access, busier lounges might be a different story. But I figured, if passengers had access to first class lounges then surely they’re not going to take my stuff? (It isn’t all that valuable to begin with!) That’s probably the wrong model.

People take stuff even when the stuff isn’t valuable, or useful, or when there’s any good reason for doing so at all – and when they could easily be caught, too. The correct model is that people are terrible – or at least some percentage of people are, no matter where you go.