Could a sex offender be sitting next to your child on the plane?
Who’s sitting next to you on the plane? Or better question…who’s sitting next to your child?
I thought I would share with you something disturbing my friend just experienced on a flight. I will not say what airline, but my friend gave me her permission to use her name…
Creepy Flight Experience
Colleene and Mike were on their way to Colorado. Mike jumped into the window seat and Colleene got the middle. At first there was a woman with a baby in the aisle seat.
A couple rows up Colleene noticed a fidgety man who looked a little “off”. He kept turning around and staring at her. After a few minutes he came back and asked the woman next to Colleene if she would like to switch with him to be closer to her husband. Of course, she took him up on it.
Colleene was creeped out by this man, but just thought maybe he was a nervous flyer or really did have some sort of problem. She said he looked like he was in his mid 50’s, clean cut and not bad looking (not like that means anything!). She was still a little iffy about him…
About mid-flight Colleene and Mike both dozed off…What woke Colleene up is the whole reason I am writing this post…the man sitting next to her was aggressively rubbing her upper thigh. I am talking – very upper thigh – if you know what I mean. What…The…Hell.
Now, you need to know that Colleene is my least dramatic friend. She is the type to totally handle situations quietly and not cause a scene. She can definitely take care of herself and is not an over-reactor by any means!
She scolded the man as much as she could over the loud noises of the plane. At this point the flight was descending and it was harder to hear. Mike was still asleep and oblivious to what was happening.
Even after she yelled at the man she said he was still sitting there staring at her. That was when she thought she had to notify an attendant. This man clearly had issues and what if he was sitting next to a child?
She called the flight attendant and later had to press charges with the feds when they got off the plane. Since it happened in the air, it’s the FBI’s jurisdiction.
To speed up this story, Colleene later found out that this man had no prior convictions. Whoever she was dealing with told her that he is married and works in the film industry in California.
She shared this story with another friend who works for a popular airline. This person said that something similar to this occurred just a few days after it happened to Colleene on one of her flights. This time the culprit WAS a registered sex offender. She also said that the airline has no screening process to see if a passenger is a predator.
This freaked me the heck out. I am already a nervous flyer. Of course, I am more concerned about terrorists, crazy people trying to open the door, and the plane gaining a sunroof mid-flight…but, add this to the list now, too! Looks like I am going to ditch the pre-flight cocktails and ALWAYS make sure I get “A” seating!
All joking aside…I am sharing this with you because a lot of you are parents and I think this is something worth knowing. Just to keep an eye out and maybe make sure that YOU are always sitting next to your child and not a stranger.
~~~On a side note – Colleene is not happy at all about how the airline handled this. She was told that she would receive a phone call to follow up with her horrendous flight.
Granted, it wasn’t directly the airline’s fault that there was a creep on the plane, but a simple apology would have gone a long way. After a few weeks, she took it upon herself to call them and was rudely asked, “Why would WE call and apologize?”
Personally, I was somewhat surprised to learn that sex offenders are not required to notify the airline before traveling. I mean, it is a requirement at many campgrounds, why wouldn’t it be one on a plane? After hearing about things like this happening, I hope a rule comes into play soon.
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That is crazy.
Yes, they really should have a screening process for passengers.
My husband’s a pilot and he would have been furious if the flight attendants told him that! Did the flight attendants cuff him?
So sorry the airline didn’t handle it better!
No, they did not cuff him. They separated them by having him stay in the seat and Colleene go stand by the bathroom. The man kept getting up and trying to go by her. Colleene’s husband kept telling him to stay the hell away and the attendants kept telling him he had to sit down. Crazy stuff!!!
OMG! You have now thoroughly freaked me out! I’m flying in a few weeks with my kids (just me) and now I can just picture myself being totally paranoid about everyone! The last time we flew, I was nursing my son and I was completely covered up but his tiny little legs were sticking out from under the nursing cover and there was this man who blatantly stared it me. It made me so uncomfortable, I told my husband and him being the nice guy told me not to worry about it. Five minutes later, hubby gets up and basically tells the guy to mind his own business and turn his head. Apparently it bothered hubby too. But now I’m going to be by myself and I’m still nursing. What am I going to do now? Ahhh! Thanks for increasing my travel anxiety…
Oh, I am sorry! I know I already had loads of travel anxiety and this just added to my list, too. It’s good to be aware though. At least there are always nice people on the plane, too. They definitely outnumber the creeps! Enjoy your trip with your family. Like Shelley said, you can always inform the attendants of your uneasiness, too.
Addison, I understand your anxiety completely! I nursed both my kids and remember having to feed them in public and it seems you really encounter the creepy stare-ers more often than not. It’s truly unfortunate. However, for your upcoming travel, I would highly suggest letting the attendants know your feelings and situation as soon as you arrive at the airport. I have not yet traveled with my kids by plane but plan to soon, and I am also nervous. But the last few times I’ve flown, the staff has been extremely kind, and I remember families getting priority boarding so they could sit together… I hope you have a safe, fun, and relaxing trip!
Oh goodness, I can’t believe it was that bad. My husband just walked in and I told him the story. Yes, cuffs and at the very least, the creep would have had to sit between 2-3 of the biggest men on the airplane.
If my husband has unaccompanied minors on his flight he always has them sit in either first or last row so flight attendants can keep their eye on them. Of course this doesn’t help when you need to split up, but don’t be afraid to ask flight attendant if you can switch seats with another passenger they will usually help.
I was not there, but like I said – this friend of mine is not a drama queen by any means. I guess the flight attendants said that they should have cuffed him – after the fact.
Fortunately, I have only ever come across completely helpful and friendly flight crews! I am pretty sure they are usually more than helpful – especially when it comes to kids.
I just talked to her again and she said that most of this happened after they had already landed. That’s when things escalated and they were separated. Maybe that’s why they didn’t cuff him.
WOW. I am so sorry that happened to your friend, and I really can not believe that someone ACTUALLY did that. (Ok, maybe I can in the world we live in.) This makes me nervous because in 3 weeks I am flying alone with my two girls, ages 4 and 1. I did this in March, and everyone was really helpful, even strangers. But it kinda makes you wonder if strangers who are “helping” you have different motives.
I think there should be some sort of screening. If you HAVE to be registered as a sex offender and let your neighbors know, then I think you should have to let airlines know.
Yeah, it’s actually sad that you have to question people’s motives. But, there are still good people out there! It’s just good to be aware and listen to your gut if you get a bad vibe from someone.
Sadly, no matter where you are you could run into someone like this. Just one of many reason I would never sleep on a plane. I hope the charges went through and were not dropped by the feds. The guy would have gotten much worse than a lecture from me!
No, they are pursuing it. There is a court date in August. Since he has no priors it will probably be a slap on the wrist, though. I hope he gets help. The way she described him, it sounded like there’s a mental problem.
That is so scary. I am so sorry that happened to your friend. I actually have thought about these things when I fall asleep on flights by myself. You bring up a good point about the fact that there is no screening. The whole situation is terrible, and I hope your friend is ok.
I used to take sleeping pills on flights!!! Not anymore! Yeah, she is okay. I mean, it freaked her out, but she has been through a lot worse.
I agree that’s terrible! They should have handcuffed him, and I hope he gets the worst punishment he can for what he did! Airplane travel is dangerous because you’re in a confined space and there’s only so far you can go away from someone. I make a point to travel by train– it’s easy to switch seats, there are several cars, and there are lots of families on them! It isn’t practical with small children though, because train rides have the potential to be so long!
I don’t, though, think that scrrening for sex offenders is a good idea, because the way that America handles sex offenders is so broad that you don’t know whether the guy likes children or whether he was 19 and his girlfriend was 16 and her parents called the police because they were having sex. It happens very often! I believe that 25% of sex offenders got labelled because of something that you wouldn’t even think twice about.
YES, that is a VERY good point. That is another change that should be made. They should create different groups of sex offenders or something. Colleene had brought that up, too. Someone very close to her was 18 or 19 with a 16 year old girlfriend with ticked off parents! He is now required to notify campgrounds, neighbors….and the whole shebang. It’s definitely not right that he is in the same category as an actual child molester.
I was going to say the same thing. It’s pretty sad how they all get categorized as child molesters even if that isn’t what they are on the registry for.
I’m not sure what exactly the airline should have apologized for since they broke no rules. Why do we expect people to take the blame for things they didn’t do? If anyone needs to apologize to this woman it is the man that did it, not the airline.
I understand what you are saying, but the airline told her they would call just to follow up and they never did. So, she was just a little disappointed that they didn’t follow through. She is not blaming the airline…it would have just been nice to have a courtesy call. The airline gets complaints about a lot smaller issues. And to top it off, when she did call them, they were rude to her.
Stumbling your post! The Skinny You on FB 🙂
So sorry for friend, This is so scary, and it’s so hard to pick out the crazy people from the “normal” one! You can never really tell…
Just look at the BTK killer… Uggghhh…
Isn’t that the truth!!! Thanks for Stumbling. 🙂
OMG!! How disturbing! I stumbled this post 🙂
She should have punched him in the damn nose. I am shocked, just as I know she was. I am flying with my boys for the first time on Thursday. Great post.
LOL! Honestly, I was surprised she didn’t. She definitely did not hold back verbally, though.
I seriously have chills right now-If I woke up to that, that man would be singing a high soprano if you know what I mean! NOBODY touches me without permission like that, especially a stranger and I am my mother’s daughter-Loud and opinionated enough to let people know what’s what!
I’m very disappointed that the situation wasn’t handled stricter then how it was-This is serious business!
Thank you for sharing with everyone Jennifer.
LOL Kayla! That’s funny and I am HAPPY to hear that you are like that. Everyone deserves their personal space and anyone who invades it should get a swift kick if you ask me!
I am appalled at the comments on this board, enough so that I am responding to a post that’s over a year old. In the first place, not all sex offenders are “predators”. So sad that people confuse the two, because there are over 200 crimes which will land a person on the sex offender registry – crimes that often have nothing to do with children, and sometimes, not even with another human being. Okay, second point: The reoffense rate for sex offenders is (drum roll) 1.9% as documented by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (not exactly a friend of the sex offender; they run the CA prisons). Other states have tagged reoffense at 1.2-3%. Too high! you say. Bear in mind that the only criminal with a lower reoffense rate is a murderer (who is not on a registry and could easily be next to you on a plane, at the store, etc.) The “average” criminal reoffends at over 50%, drunk drivers (who kill children) reoffend at 85%. Finally … it is well documented that the VAST majority of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone within the child’s own family or close social circle. Recent headlines bear that sad truth out. So, quit getting your knickers in a twist about some guy on a plane and whether former sex offenders can travel (they can. Punishment ends when sentence is served, rights are restored, even to people you don’t like.) Focus on education and prevention of child abuse, because it really does start…close to home.
I am sorry that this offended you. It’s hard to pause to analyze the stats when it’s a “sex crime” though. I agree it’s not fair to lump all people together in one group, but I do struggle with being super compassionate to anyone who is a sex offender. Regardless if they are “predators” or not, they did something to earn that title. I do believe that they should modify the laws to separate the people who dated a 17 year old when they were 18 — or something minor like that. But, if it has anything to do with touching another human being (OR NON human being??) against their will, I have no sympathy for them.