Police have arrested and charged a man who is accused of stealing almost $23,000 in cash from three different passengers on board his flight from Vietnam to Singapore.
The man was identified in court documents obtained by CNN as 52-year-old Zhang Xiuqiang. Xiuqiang is a Chinese national who was on the Scoot Airlines flight, which is a budget airline for Singapore Airlines.
A spokesperson for the airline told CNN that it was aware of the incident in question, as the flight’s “cabin crew was alerted by a passenger to a suspected theft in the cabin,” who then called the authorities.
“The involved passengers were escorted off the aircraft by airport authorities for further investigation, and disembarkation proceeded as usual for the rest of our passengers,” the spokesperson said.
Xiuqiang allegedly stole from three separate passengers, taking 3 million Vietnamese dong from one passenger’s backpack, 510 million Vietnamese dong from and a 50 Singapore dollar bill from another passenger’s messenger bag, and $1,000 and 930 Singapore dollars from an envelope belonging to the third, according to Channel NewsAsia.
The total amount he stole comes out to $22,811, and since the incident, he has been charged with three counts of theft in a district court.
The act of cabin theft is a federal crime in many countries, and if Xiuqiang is convicted of his charges, he could face up to three years in jail.