Chinese national, 30, jailed 8 months in S'pore for stealing S$1,186 cash from fellow Scoot passenger's bag

A Chinese national was jailed for eight months on Feb. 25 for stealing cash belonging to another passenger while on a Scoot flight from Jeju to Singapore and getting caught red-handed.

Zhang Youqi, 30, a tour guide, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, CNA reported.

What happened

On Feb. 4, he was caught by the passenger he was stealing from and he lied that he was looking for his own bag.

The victim, a 42-year-old woman, was with her husband at the time.

She kept a pouch containing U.S. dollars and Chinese yuan, which was placed in a brown Gucci haversack and stored in the overhead compartment where she sat.

The flight they were on was slated to reach Singapore at about 1:50pm

Zhang was to travel to Kuala Lumpur and then to Hong Kong after the Singapore leg of his journey.

Shifted seats

He had moved two rows behind the victim during the flight as the seats were empty.

He was originally allocated a seat in the same row as the victim.

Zhang observed the victim at about 1pm when she got up to get her credit card from her bag to buy food.

He later took the victim's bag from the compartment and brought it back to his seat.

He removed some of the cash he found in the pouch and kept the money in his jacket's left pocket.

Caught red-handed

He was spotted by the victim when he brought the bag back to the overhead compartment.

When questioned what he was doing, he lied and said he was looking for his own bag, and opened the other overhead compartments.

His own bag was placed near his seat.

He then placed the money in an overhead compartment as he feared he would be caught with it.

The victim and her husband confronted Zhang when they found that money was missing from the pouch.

Zhang denied doing anything.

The cabin crew were alerted to the situation at this point.

Two other passengers came forward and said they had seen Zhang with the bag.

After the plane landed, cabin crew checked the overhead compartments and found US$885 (S$1,186).

The victim got the money back, but another 1,000 yuan (US$138) that was missing from the bag was not recovered.

Zhang eventually admitted to taking the money when he initialy denied it repeatedly.

He said he needed the money to pay off his debts in China.

He could have been jailed up to three years, fined, or both.

Top photo via Scoot Facebook