The Creepy Passenger

May 26, 2009

in Passenger Stories

I was flying from the east coast to the west coast (I can’t give specifics because I had received the ticket from a relative who works for the airline) and was lucky enough to secure a first class seat. It was an older plane but the seats were pretty spacious and there was a large arm rest dividing the two seats. We left on time and my neighbor (a foreign man missing a few teeth) immediately starts ordering screwdrivers even though it was only 7:30 in the morning. Well for some reason we get delayed on the tarmac and are forced to sit there for over two hours. During this time my neighbor starts talking to me and at first I’m polite but then he starts to get a little bit more aggressive telling me how smart I seem (really impossible to determine because I had said about three words. He did all the talking bragging about his engineering business) and how he wants to give me a job once I’m done with school and how my unique look would really take me places in the engineering world (what? yah that’s what I thought too). All this time he’s had a couple of screwdrivers and maybe a glass of wine and then is told he can’t have anymore until we are in the air. I decide he is weird and put on my headphones and pretend to sleep.

Well the plane gets in the air and they put on a movie I had wanted to see so I wrap myself in a blanket and start watching. I slightly shift and feel something brush against my leg. I look down and my now “sleeping” neighbor has his blanket completely over the armrest and is touching the edge of my seat. His arm is underneath the blanket. His hand had brushed against my leg. This creeped me out but he appears to be sleeping so I scoot as far as I can against the window, wrap my blanket around me tighter and continue watching my movie. I literally do not move an inch for two hours. Not an inch. I was so creeped out from this guy touching my leg.

However, I couldn’t take it anymore and shift positions. I feel something again, this time against my side. I look down and this guy has his arm over the arm rest again and….is stroking my side!!! His grubby hands are slowly and deliberately going up and down my side while the rest of his body is wrapped in his blanket like a cocoon doing God knows what. I yell out “Don’t touch me!” and get the flight attendant. I take my stuff and move to a seat in the back of the plane for the rest of the flight. He had a great surprise when we landed and he was escorted off the plane by the police and an FBI agent. He apparently felt he was doing nothing wrong and wanted to apologize to me in person for any misunderstandings. I don’t think so.

The ironic part is he was going out west to attend a Tony Robbins seminar.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Benny May 11, 2009 at 5:06 am

Clearly the guy was a creep and in the wrong but I think you could handle something like that bettrer without the screaming hysterics. I firm and loud "Please remove your hand and do not touch or speak to me during this flight" followed up maybe with FA assistance to get HIM removed is more than enough. Forget the silent tense squirming in your seat (which however wrongly probably encouraged him). You are going to meet more creeps than that one in your life.

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Will NOT put up with May 11, 2009 at 10:23 am

Um what hysterics? I made one comment to the guy. I've met plenty of creeps in my life and if you don't nip it in the bud as soon as you can they'll continue the same behavior. Hopefully you never have a daughter and give her that advice. It's NEVER ok for ANYONE to touch you without permission. Lets see how you would act if you look over and some incredibly unattractive, insanely weird guy/girl is trying to stroke you. Not the time for a conversation.

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Will NOT put up with May 11, 2009 at 10:25 am

Oh and the flight attendants were very involved and wonderful. I moved because it was almost a completely full flight, he was drunk and frankly he was at risk for annoying anyone he was next too.

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H E Pennypacker May 11, 2009 at 10:53 am

I think what Benny is trying to say is that you dont have to scream and yell. Tell him to knock it off and if he still persists that yell bloody murder.

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Phillip May 12, 2009 at 6:39 pm

Pssh! Don't listen to 'em.

Conversing with creeps will just encourage them! They're not like you and I. They get a rush off their inherent creepitude, and legitimately enjoy making people uncomfortable!

So next time someone tells you "you are going to meet a lot more creeps in your life than just one" just think to yourself…

"Gosh, he's probably a creep, too!"

Just my two-cents!

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Hugh May 13, 2009 at 1:23 am

Why didn't you alert the FA right away when he started it initially? Normally I don't advocate yelling like that on a plane, but in a case like this, it might have been justified. I would have alerted the FA, though, and had him moved instead of you.

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Anomia May 15, 2009 at 1:09 pm

I agree with you – nobody has the right to put their hands on you (or anything else!) without permission. I'd have made a fuss too!

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angryfeet May 21, 2009 at 11:12 am

Uh, for everyone that says she shouldn't have yelled – this guy was attempting to molest her. I'm not saying he was going to throw her down and rape her on the plane, but he was forcing unwanted physical contact on her and deliberately harassing her. You seriously suggest that she should have quietly asked him to stop?

If this was your daughter on a plane, with a strange man stroking his hands up and down her body, would you still think it unreasonable for her to make a fuss?

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Anonymous May 26, 2009 at 8:16 am

Are you people insane? NO ONE has the right to touch you without your permission. She would have had the right to yell bloody murder!

Politeness goes out the window if you are being MOLESTED.

Someone was robbing your house- do you ask nicely for them to leave or yell for the police?

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Atari May 31, 2009 at 8:14 pm

There are too many people like 'Benny' on this site, who constantly say stuff like, "Well, although your seat-mate was a deranged psychopath, there was NO REASON for you to be so rude."

Stop talking, you insensitive, ignorant, bleeding-heart morons!

She was FULLY in the right to do what she did.

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