With neither a ticket nor a passport,
Marilyn Hartman slipped into Chicago O'Hare International Airport last week, sneaked onto a
British Airways flight and travelled to London, where she was apprehended by customs officials, the Chicago police department said.
Hartman, 66, of Illinois, entered O'Hare on January 14, police said. First, she walked past two Transportation Security Administration officers while they were checking the boarding passes of other passengers, Tandra R Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney, said on Sunday.
"She hid her face with her hair and walked past the officers without presenting proper documentation to board a flight," Simonton said.
After Hartman joined the security line and was screened by the TSA, she tried to board a flight to Connecticut, attempting to conceal herself behind a passenger who was waiting in line, Simonton said. As Hartman tried to dart past the passenger, the gate agent stopped her.
Prosecutors said Hartman stayed overnight at the airport, and the next day she approached a shuttle bus headed for the international gate.
According to police, she then got on a flight that landed at
Heathrow Airport, where she was detained by British customs officials and denied entry into the UK. When she arrived in the US on Thursday, she was charged with one felony count of theft and one misdemeanor for trespassing.
Hartman's court-appointed lawyer could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
During a 2016 hearing in Chicago, prosecutors said she had been stopped by the police on airport properties a dozen times in different parts of the country, media reported. In 2014, she boarded a flight in California, without a ticket, and was arrested when she landed at Los Angeles KNTV reported.
