Serial Stowaway Slips Past O'Hare Security, Flies To London
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 66-year-old Grayslake woman with a history of trying to sneak onto airline flights managed to slip past security and took a flight from O'Hare International Airport to London earlier this week.
Chicago police say Marilyn Hartman boarded the flight Sunday afternoon without a ticket.
Sources tell CBS 2 Hartman slipped by a distracted TSA agent in O'Hare's Terminal 3, somehow made it to the international terminal and slipped past a busy gate agent to board a British Airways flight to London.
Sources say O'Hare security video shows Hartman had been wandering the airport for two days and no one questioned her.
Once on the London-bound plane, sources say, Hartman hid in a bathroom and eventually walked out and found a seat. When she couldn't produce a passport Monday at Heathrow Airport, officials sent her back to O'Hare, where she was taken into custody Thursday.
Hartman was charged Friday with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass and one felony count of theft greater than $500, Chicago police said in a news release. She was expected to appear in bond court Saturday.
In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration said: "This matter is subject to an ongoing investigation and TSA is working closely with our law enforcement and airline partners in that effort.
"During the initial investigation it was determined that the passenger was screened at the security checkpoint before boarding a flight. Upon learning of the incident TSA, and its aviation partners took immediate action to review security practices throughout the airport."
Hartman has been arrested several times on trespassing charges for trying to sneak onto planes at O'Hare and Midway, including trying to board a plane at Midway without a ticket in July 2015 less than 24 hours after being released from jail.
