Originally Posted by rbphilip

In this case the problem was the guy two rows forward of him in the FC cabin. Not sure how that necessarily relates to the "democratizing" of flying, although it certainly does relate to a lack of honest upbringing. My automatic reaction would be to look around and say "anybody lose a pen" and give it to the FA if nobody spoke up.

However, situations like this are why travel insurance through one's credit card or "personal items insurance" through one's regular insurance exist. I *insist* on wearing an expensive Breitling on my travels because it's my watch. I'm not going to switch to a cheap watch just because I'm going out in public. So far it's been on my wrist since 1997 without problem.

Originally Posted by LaserSailor

I think there are enough of these for this thread to constitute a illegally convened lottery of advice...

When you lose something, it isn't theft. You lost it. Maybe someone took it, maybe not. You don't know. The correct response from the police is "take care of your stuff better" and then go catch criminals.