Gotcha! Virgin Atlantic devises novel method to humble passengers who ‘steal’ its salt and pepper shakers from flights

Some airline passengers may not appear to be what they are. They may look well-dressed and sophisticated outwardly, but scratch the surface and you find a different persona: the urge to steal items from the aircraft and put it in their hand baggage before they disembark, such as cutlery and coffee mugs. Some even go to the extent of ‘offloading’ life jackets, first class pillows and blankets.

One airline, however, has come out with a novel idea to curb the habit. Those who pilfer Virgin Atlantic’s salt and pepper shakers might just get a jolt when they take them home.

It looks very attractive and ends up in the passengers’ hand baggage. That is because it has some appealing cartoon-like planes on its feet, according to the Independent.

The cruets are in three colours – silver, gold and black – and have become something of a collector’s item.

But it will now be clear when someone has managed to take one of those desirable collections.

The bottom of one of the shaker’s feet reads “pinched from” while the other reads “Virgin Atlantic”.

Users were chuffed with the update and shared their fondness for the shakers.

One commented: “I might or might not have black, silver and gold! Looking forward to ‘borrowing’ some more in under five weeks!”