Serial Stowaway Artist Marilyn Hartman Sneaks Onto Chicago-To-London Flight
CHICAGO (CBS Chicago) -- A 66-year-old suburban Chicago 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 told CBS 2 Chicago that Hartman slipped by a distracted TSA agent in O'Hare Terminal 3, somehow made it to the international terminal and slipped past a busy gate agent to board a British Airways flight to London.
The report said 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. In a hearing Saturday afternoon, a judge ordered her released on her own recognizance, but ordered her to undergo psychiatric treatment and stay away from O'Hare and any British Airways planes.
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 tried numerous times in recent years to board planes without a ticket, succeeding at least once by flying from San Jose, California, to Los Angeles in August 2014. She was arrested twice in two days in 2015 at O'Hare and Chicago's Midway International Airport. She also has airport-related arrests in Arizona.
Hartman was released on probation to a Chicago nursing home in December 2015, and ordered to avoid airports and Chicago's Union Station.
© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
