SOME MEN MUST HAVE SMILED AS SHE PICKED THEIR POCKETS

‘MILE HIGH PICKPOCKET’ AIR HOSTESS STOLE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS FROM PASSENGERS AS THEY SLEPT
by Peter Allen
　
Mail Online
July 20, 2010
　
An air hostess is facing ten years in prison after admitting stealing from business class passengers as they slept on long-haul flights.
　
The 47-year-old was dubbed the ‘Mile High Pickpocket’ after being caught following complaints about missing money, credit cards and designer jewelry.
　
She would rifle through pockets and handbags, helping herself to the equivalent of £3,700 in notes on one flight alone.
　
‘It would all go missing on the routes she was working on,’ said a source close to investigators, who looked at 142 flights taken by the woman, who is married with children.

‘She knew that many of the passengers would fall asleep following a large meal and lots of alcohol.
　
‘This is the time that she would start rifling through their property, helping herself to whatever she could find.’
　
The defendant, known for legal reasons solely as Lucie R, was finally arrested when she got off a Tokyo to Paris flight at 4.30am last Friday.
　
Police had corroborated her flight rota with the huge number of crimes being reported.
　
When confronted with the evidence against her, she confessed to 26 different thefts, during which everything from antique watches to cheque books were taken.
　
Most took place on long-haul flights from France to the Far East.
　
On one flight to Japan alone, five passengers complained about losing up to £3,700 in cash.
　
Detectives charged her with the 26 offences while suggesting that numerous other thefts ‘undoubtedly took place’.
　
He said that colleagues had also become suspicious of Lucie R’s lavish lifestyle.
　
Despite officially earning less than £40,000 a year, she regularly turned up for work in a top-of-the-range sports car and was buying plush apartments close to the airports where she worked.
　
Detectives also raided a bank deposit box in her home town of Rouen, western France, where Lucie R had hidden stolen property including Cartier jewelry.
　
The woman is currently in custody in Paris and is expected to appear before examining magistrates later this week.