A man was arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport over the weekend after allegedly spending three months in the terminal without being located.
Man arrested after living in O’Hare
A 36-year-old man was arrested on Saturday and charged with violating an airport in a restricted area and theft of misconduct. He was banned from entering the airport, and bail was set at $ 1,000.
The man flew from Los Angeles to Chicago on October 19, 2020, and has not left the safe zone of the airport since. How did he finally catch on? On Saturday, two United Airlines employees approached the man and asked to see his identification, after realizing that he had spent a lot of time in the terminal. At that point, the man showed them an airport ID number he had on a lanyard around his neck.
However, the badge belongs to an operations manager who reported on October 26 that the badge was missing. At that point, 911 was called, whereupon the man was arrested.
Why did the man stay at the airport?
This is the part of the story that is hard to figure out. Why would anyone want to live in O’Hare for a few months? The man was apparently ‘scared to go home because of COVID’, so he decided to spend months at the airport. He survived by asking other passengers to give money for food. He apparently had a place to live and roommates in California.
In many ways, explaining what happened can raise more questions than anything else. The most dangerous part of the travel experience these days is probably at airports rather than on planes, as the latter at least has much better air filtration.
We have sometimes heard of people living in terminals due to access restrictions for changing countries, leaving them without options. However, this was not the case here, as it was a domestic flight.
We also sometimes hear of homeless people trying to live at airports, but this is almost always the case in the country, as they usually do not buy tickets.
Another story that comes to mind is the series from a few years ago, which would constantly find a way to get to security and flights, even without a ticket. She even did it a few times at O’Hare Airport.
Was there any safety risk here?
The judge in the case expressed disbelief about how someone could live unnoticed in a “safe” part of the airport:
‘So if I understand you correctly, please tell me that an unauthorized person who is not working from 19 October 2020 to 16 January 2021 is allegedly living in a safe part of the O’Hare Airport terminal, and has not been located ? I want to understand you right. ‘
Personally, I’m not really surprised:
- Just because air safety is safe does not mean that tabs are kept on everyone, but just that they have been screened and whether they had a valid oncoming or departure boarding pass.
- You see people sleeping all the time in airport terminals
- Many airport staff can be seen in the terminals daily, so it is not necessarily uncommon to see the same person every day.
- It was even harder to identify people when everyone was wearing masks
Personally, I do not find the detail surprising at all, and I am not shocked that he was able to live with O’Hare for three months unnoticed. The real question is why he would want to do that …
Bottom line
A man has been arrested after living at Chicago O’Hare Airport for three months, allegedly because he was afraid to fly home due to the coronavirus. I’m not sure I follow the logic, but it’s a strange situation. The man was finally arrested Sunday after being approached by employees and asked to show his ID. At that point, it was determined that he had a lanyard with a stolen ID from the airport employee.
What do you make of this situation?