CLEVELAND — Cleveland Police say a flight attendant is suspected of stealing a backpack from a Esports commentator inside Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Sunday morning.
“Never in my life thought it would ever happen,” said D’Ron Maingrette, the traveler whose bag was taken. “It’s still a shock to this day.”
Maingrette, a former competitive gamer known as “D1," came to Cleveland for a weekend birthday party. He said he’s recovering from an ankle injury and was using a wheelchair while at the airport. He said he left his bag on the wheelchair with an attendant while he used the restroom near his gate in the airport’s A-Concourse. But when he returned to the wheelchair, he said the bag was missing.
“I asked him [the attendant], ‘hey do you have my bookbag?” said Maingrette. “He’s like, ‘wait, what?’ And I’m like, dude, I left my bookbag on this wheelchair. Where’s my bookbag?”
He said the attendant explained he turned around and sat down in a chair while Maingrette was in the men’s room. Maingrette said the pair looked for the bag but couldn’t find it.
“If you were to say my life was like a glass mirror, it just shattered right in front of me,” said Maingrette via video chat from his home near Los Angeles. The 33-year-old said his passport, credit cards, cash and electronics were inside the bag.
Fearing he’d never see the bag again, Maingrette found a police officer. According to an incident report, police quickly reviewed surveillance video and spotted the suspected thief.
“The moment the police officer got the information, he started walking right towards the gate,” said Maingrette. “Didn’t tell anybody anything.”
Police say they tracked the suspect to gate A-14 and onto a waiting Frontier Airlines plane. Investigators say they asked the man to bring the backpack and exit the plane.
“Out of nowhere the police officer shows up with the bag in hand and I’m like ‘there’s literally no way,’ said Maingrette. He opened the bag and was amazed nothing was missing. “It’s that famous quote, there is a God,” he said.
But he said the relief was short-lived when he learned that the guy caught on camera taking his bag was a flight attendant.
“That really hurt my confidence in just flight attendants in general,” said Maingrette. “I never would have thought a day in my life I’d have to be worried about those kind of people.”
Frontier Airlines has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the situation. By phone, the flight attendant, who has not been charged with any crime, said he was suspended by the airline but would not comment on what happened.
It’s a string of events that still doesn’t make any sense to Maingrette. The frequent flyer is now back at home in California with an unfortunate souvenir from his trip to Northeast Ohio.
“My heart was broken that day man,” he said. “It hurt a lot and my trust in humanity was gone.”
Records show Cleveland Police have investigated 12 thefts at the airport since October, 2016. According to police reports, this is the first time a suspect has been a member of an airline’s flight crew.
