Police: Woman Arrested For Scaling Miami Airport Fence
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) --- A California woman is charged with trespassing after Miami-Dade Police said she scaled a fence at Miami International Airport and was stopped from getting close to the runway.
It happened Monday morning during a busy time at the airport when planes were landing every few minutes.
Police said Lani Kai Arriaga used a jacket to protect her hands from the barbed wire on top of the fence.
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Miami-Dade Police Detective Romelio Martinez told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that Arriaga was arrested on the inside of the perimeter fence on the western corner of airport at N.W. 16th St. and N.W. 72nd Ave.
Arriaga was not injured and no one else was hurt. But Martinez said he is alarmed.
There are numerous signs posted on the airport fences about the airport being a restricted area and how no trespassing was allowed and it was forbidden to climb on to or vandalize fences.
"The main thing we'd like to focus on is that those signs are there for a reason," said Martinez.
"You can get hit by a plane. These planes cannot stop. The thrust from those planes has been known to flip over large emergency vehicles. So it is very dangerous to try to run out to the tarmac.
"If you were to trespass in this fashion, not only would you put your own life in danger but you would put officers in danger and emergency crews in danger plus the people who work at the airport.
"Fortunately in this case our officers able to respond quickly and deal with this before anything happened. Fortunately this lady did not injure herself."
Arriaga has posted a series of photos on Facebook, including one that shows her holding a sign that says "United as one divided by Zero," which is a reference to the Anonymous Group that has expressed social dissent.
Martinez said he was not sure what prompted Arriaga to scale the airport fence.
"We are not sure about a motive at this point," he said. "This appears just to be a case of trespassing."
Arriaga was being held on $1,000 bond after being charged with trespassing.
The charge is a misdemeanor.
D'Oench asked Martinez if he thought Arriaga would also face federal charges.
Martinez said at this point, he did not think that she would.