Check This Stuff Out? Crazy

[jbragg476]

Someone Fwd this to my email address... Anyone care to comment??....

this was on the alpa web page it is written by the flight deck crew on board the searched flight.. wanted to share this with you.

Today, 4/26/04, Rodney McAlister, Loui Young, and myself returned from MAN-PHL on Flight #197. We were "met" at the gate and rushed back on board by a group of 15-20 individuals headed up by Sunny Levitt and 2 other USAir Inflight Supervisors. We were ordered to stay in Envoy rows 2-5 and were watched by Supervisors from the instant on board so we couldn't removed anything from our bags or persons. The group of 15 included Corporate Security (2 that I personally know from the CLT office), Philly Police, Customs & Imm. Officers. We were told that this was an "On-board Customs check." We were escorted one at a time to row 21 where our bags were THROUGHLY searched (they ripped open my sealed bills and letters ready to be mailed). We were told to empty our pockets, and the money from our wallets and purses was scanned by Corporate Security using an electronic device and they then matched our bills against several zeroxed pages of bills that they were looking for. It was a NAZI search like I have never inagined.

Folks, THIS WAS NO CUSTOMS SEARCH! They had obviously marked bills in Manchester and had someone on board spending it on Liquor, Duty Free, or headsets and were matching bills against those in our possessions. I overheard one of the Customs guys tell another that they had caught someone with "a bottle of Baileys and some money."

My point in all of this is: DO NOT take money out of your own pocket to make change, as you may be putting marked money back in your pocket. DO NOT be buying Pounds or Euro off of the plane, as it may be marked as well. I won't even take so much as a bottle of water off from this point on.

This was one of the most humiliating events I have ever gone through. Be warned
and protect yourselves.
(end of FWD)

 

[Fly]

 

[firstamendment]

Good Lord!

 

[EyeInTheSky]

This really sucks. Clearly, for them to go to those lengths means something is going on. What do AFA and ALPA have to say about all this?

 

[traderjake]

The rumor on the line is that a flight attentant was found with $500 plus in marked bills.

I don't know if it was this flight or another but she/he was fired. The other F/As with small amounts of marked bills kept their jobs.

 

[Light Years]

The company is on the verge of demise, and they are marking bills in Europe to try and catch flight attendants stealing money? Dont they have other things to worry about?

Thievery is absolutely wrong. But this is not the way to catch someone. F/As are expected to keep track of and make change for duty free, headsets and liqour (yes, even on transatlantic now, making the formerly award winning product as cheap-ass and crap as the rest of the airline <_< ). Sometimes they make change with thier own money. Some times they switch bills or currencies. There are numerous ways a bill from a passenger could end up in a crewmembers possession without them having stolen it.

I guess they are so used to stealing our money, pride, and dreams that they cant trust someone to not walk off the plane with a spponful of Baileys and some cash. Maybe they just watched the movie Jackie Brown.

This company is unbelievable.

 

[PITbull]

Its deplorable that management attempts to set up the f/as in hope to find what they assume just maybe stealing. If management wants to monitor their products, instead of going through these lengths of trying to humiliate the f/as by going to great lengths and storming an a/c and even opening up f/as posted mail and bills, they need to just give coupons in exchange for cash to the customers at the gate if they wish to purchase on board.

Company tried to say that it was a "customs search". That was just fabrication.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Its deplorable that management attempts to set up the f/as in hope to find what they assume just maybe stealing.

So how do you propose the company prove theft? Surveillance cameras in the galley? If there were no theft, then there would be no need for searches and no need for employee to be worried. Obviously, there is a problem with money from onboard sales disappearing. You have nothing to worry about if you aren't helping yourself to onboard products and cash.

 

[traderjake]

Thievery is absolutely wrong. But this is not the way to catch someone. F/As are expected to keep track of and make change for duty free, headsets and liqour (yes, even on transatlantic now, making the formerly award winning product as cheap-ass and crap as the rest of the airline <_< ). Sometimes they make change with thier own money. Some times they switch bills or currencies. There are numerous ways a bill from a passenger could end up in a crewmembers possession without them having stolen it.

.

Nobody makes $500 worth of change from their own pocket.

 

[PITbull]

Bob,

Where do you get off?

You have got to quit spiking the "tap water" at night. Are you citing your "observation" again?

Thieves? guilty? Who said?

 

[Dea Certe]

From the rumors I've heard, it wasn't Corporate, it was the Duty-Free company.

And the search wasn't random; apparently one name was coming up "short" on money for some time.

I can only imagine how very upsetting it was for the crew. It's never right to steal but I have to wonder what would drive a person to risk their job and possibly a jail term for so few dollars.

Very sad.

Dea

 

[a320schoolbusdriver]

Piney says: "US Airways does not need to change their procedures. They need to hire honest employees".

Piney please keep in mind thjat must employee's are honest! Like in any profession there will be a small percentage of theft from lawyers to doctors.
There probably even some crooks at LUV
Me personally i wouldn't take a bag of peanuts.

 

[planejane]

Every company has some sort of Loss Prevention. Whether it be, Duty Free, US, they were only doing their job. Unfortunately, the innocent sometime can get caught up in it. It sets examples for those on the fence - they will think twice before the temptation gets the better of them. Employees don't realize that the garbage bags, napkins, tie wraps, etc....all equate in the bottom line. And I agree, the loss of your job is never worth that roll of paper towels from the bathroom!

 

[cavalier]

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[fix_airplanes]

I work for another airline and I thought we had crummy mangement. You poor folks are doomed with that style of mangement. Your management has got bigger fish to fry then playing amature detective with a few employees. So sad. :down: