Please sign in to post.

Followed by man on a shuttle service to CDG airport

My two friends just returned from Paris and Spain.
On their way to CDG airport to fly home, this happened.
They booked a shuttle shared service, sounds like a mini bus, from their hotel to CDG.
On board was a man who kept looking at them and then followed behind them all through the airport as they left the bus.
They didn’t clock him right away.
As they had large cases, they waited for an elevator up to wherever check in was.
He did the same.
They got in and he all of a sudden starting frantically pushing all the buttons over and over, distracting my friends.
At the same time one noticed her big wallet with passport in it was gone, she shouted and he held it up in the air.
The doors hadn’t opened yet and she snatched it back.
Of course he ran off.
They went to airport authorities right away but were told this is happening constantly.
This friend had the wallet in a crossbody bag held tightly under one arm for the whole 3 week trip with no problems, but he made such a confusion she must have loosened her grip.

My question is: was he in league with the shuttle driver to be able to get on board one, or are thieves now spending money for tickets in order to steal yours??

Posted by
1009 posts

Why would 2 people traveling together book a shuttle service for probably more per person than splitting the fixed rate taxi fare?

Did they notify the police? Contact the shuttle service? Which shuttle company was it?

Posted by
16292 posts

How did they book the shuttle service? Through the hotel? Through someone they met? Finding the cheapest on the internet?

Whenever I need a taxi from my hotel to somewhere, and I'm not using Uber or Bolt, I let the hotel book it. Usually, the hotel will have an arrangement with an honest service. They don't need complaints in this day of internet reviews.

Posted by
10633 posts

Wow. Can you post more info about how they got the service. No name needed because we don’t want to muddy a name without knowing.

I think some people want to figure out if it was happenstance that this man was in it or conspiracy.

Posted by
346 posts

Posted by S J (Western Canada) on 11/27/24 05:52 PM or are thieves now
spending money for tickets in order to steal yours??

This. Yes they do.

News stories on shows like 20-20, Dateline, etc. have done shows in the past where there are thieves working airports.

"Nice-looking" family in the gate area, but they are waiting for someone to walk away/look away from their belongings to strike. Then they move on to the next area of the airport. Apparently the haul is worth the ticket prices to get into the secure area.

All the more reason to never let your guard down and practice your security measures whether at home, on the way there, there, on the way home, at home.

Posted by
3488 posts

Sorry, I don’t know any more details as I only had a very brief chat with one of the friends this morning.
I would imagine they booked it through their hotel.
As I said, they did go straight to the airport security people, who said nothing could be done as this was happening so frequently and the would be thief was long gone.

I have read of thefts in elevators previously, usually with a couple of thieves working together to jostle, crowd and distract people.

These people had a similar experience in Rome:

https://youtu.be/YZl3NRHaVDE?feature=shared

I’ll be thinking twice about elevators now when traveling.