A bagsnatch on board MV Caledonian Isles ferry had a happy ending when the thief was cornered in the toilets at Ardrossan ferry terminal.
When the 1.50pm sailing from Brodick came into Ardrossan last Sunday, two passengers went to collect their bags from the left luggage area in the foyer and could not find them. One of the passengers, Graeme Kerr from Shiskine, told the Banner: ‘I asked the gangway staff and they said that no bags had been handed in so they must have been stolen. We were advised to check if the thief was on the platform waiting for the Glasgow train.
‘The gangway quartermaster realised that it was a long way for me to walk and immediately offered to go and check for me. At the same time, some boys who were getting off the boat said that they had seen a young man run into the ferry terminal with a bag like mine.
‘The CalMac guy again came to the rescue by blocking the thief’s escape and he ran into the toilets. He followed him in but there was no-one in sight.
‘He found him hiding in the disabled toilet and challenged him, and he just gave the bag up. He threw it back to us and said: ‘Ach well, have your bag!’
‘The thief had stuffed clothes out of the other stolen bag into mine so we had some sorting out to do. Thank goodness I got everything back.’
Robbie Brown, Caledonian MacBrayne area manager said: ‘Passengers leave bags in the luggage area on the boat at their own risk. Having said that, in the many years that I have worked for CalMac there have been very few incidents of bags being stolen.
‘I would say that generally speaking, luggage is 99 percent safe when it is left in the racks.’
Graeme added: ‘I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the CalMac staff and particularly Freddie. Without him I would probably have lost my bag.’
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