It’s one of the cities that flight attendants despise flying to because of the abundance of pressurized attitude and crazy in one metal tube, and also because all of the crew layover hotels surround a prison. Welcome to Newark, New Jersey.
The flight started off normal, easy even. But as any flight attendant will tell you that usually means something’s about to happen. During our beverage and food service the flight attendant working in between both carts turned her back to grab a food request off of the food cart. In the meantime, the passenger seated in 18C took advantage of an opportunity. She was seated next to where the beverage cart was stopped in the aisle. As the flight attendant turned away 18C decided to help herself to a vodka mini, right out of the drawer.
Shocked at what she witnessed, the passenger on the opposite side of the aisle 18D, quietly motioned to the flight attendant that the other passenger had taken alcohol. Pretending to fill a request for vodka the flight attendant says to me “How many vodka’s did I give you?” At this point, I had no idea what was going on.. so I gave her the right number “just two.”
She then replied, “I thought so, I seem to be missing one.” At the same time, the passenger who stole the alcohol requests a whiskey and orange juice. The flight attendant continues on about the missing vodka.. even asking 18C “Did you order vodka or whiskey?” trying to get her to fess up the crime without accusing her.
All of a sudden the thief erupts in panic. “My wallet is gone! I just bought that whiskey from you and now my wallet is missing!” I notice it on the floor, in the aisle, in front of row 17. Now, the only way it would have gotten there and around the other flight attendant was if the passenger threw it in that direction.
But, while the flight attendant and I looked for her wallet – the thief placed the stolen alcohol in her purse. We finally had returned to the back galley and the flight attendant filled me in on the situation and it all made sense. Shocked that someone would steal right out from the cart, we enacted a plan to get her to fess up and it involved her entertainment not working.
Finally, the passenger came to the back galley and asked for help with her entertainment since it was frozen. The flight attendant explained that the entertainment would be operational once the missing alcohol was accounted for.
“Your TV will work once we settle the vodka you took from the cart” the flight attendant said. “Maybe, it just, fell out of the cart” the passenger says. “No, that’s not possible,” the flight attendant replied.
Then, without admitting guilt but also without missing a beat the passenger says: “I’ll just pay for the vodka.” “So, you’re going to pay for something that you didn’t consume?” the flight attendant responded. 18C then said: “I just don’t want any trouble on the plane.”
The flight attendant told her that if she returned the booze she wouldn’t have to pay for it, and we went back to her seat and searched for the bottle but came up short. She ended up paying for the mini and then moments later, returning to the back galley requesting half a cup of orange juice and a lime: “Is it time for a screw driver?” I replied.
The passenger across the aisle, 18D, comes to the back later and apologizes for getting in the middle of the situation and began to cry. She was on her way to he Aunt’s funeral, and as a younger adult, this passenger also stole and did other “unimaginable” things. She told us that her Aunt made her tell us about the crime and she also later had a heart to heart with the thief about not “taking advantage of the opportunity in front of you.”
Thought the craziness on this flight ends there? You’re wrong.
Enter the man who loves to stand in his row and hover over the row in front of him. And who’s sitting in front of him? A woman with a baby. It became apparent that the woman was getting a bit uncomfortable, as would anyone in her situation. During the drink service the man told me he was upset his seat didn’t recline, and I used that statement to warrant a seat change. The other flight attendant I was working with “found” a seat that reclined for the man about 8 rows away from the woman. He also came to the back to use the restroom, and lingered, very, very close to us. Invading my personal space. He didn’t just like the woman and the baby he liked being close to everyone.
Even though we found him a better seat, he didn’t move.
He went back to his row, and stood up, looking down at the woman and baby in front of him. The flight attendant directs him, one final time, to move to the new seat found for him. He becomes upset because he felt he was being singled out and embarrassed because he had to be moved. He also made it a point that he paid for a window seat and we are now moving him into an aisle.
We quickly locate and alternate seat for the alternate seat to keep him away from hovering over other passengers, in the very last row of the airplane.