The Chicago woman, who managed to sneak past airport security and board dozens of flights without a ticket, allegedly escaped from an electronic monitoring facility before returning to the airport.
‘Serial stowaway’ Marilyn Hartman was arrested at O’Hare airport after fleeing the court order on Tuesday, according to WGN.
Investigators were able to arrest Hartman at the international airport thanks to her tracking device, the report said.
The 69-year-old man – who has deceived the TSA at least 30 times in three decades – could not escape the checkpoint this week, and police picked her up in the unsafe section of the airport, the local station reported.
Hartman was arrested for violating security at O’Hare, Midway and other airports across the country. She even frustrated customs officers and jumped on planes to London, Copenhagen and Paris, according to an interview with Chicago’s CBS 2, which happened to be broadcast only on Sunday.
Hartman told the station she’s not a criminal mastermind.
‘The thing I have to tell you. I have never been able to get on a plane alone. I was always let through, ‘Hartman said. “I mean, I could go through the safety line without a boarding pass.”
“I got to them, that’s the thing that’s so crazy, by following someone who would carry them like a blue bag,” the Second City breakaway told the CBS affiliate. “And the next thing I know, get on the TSA line and TSA let me through, and they think I’m with the man with the blue bag.”
Security personnel told the station that her simple tactics are very disturbing in a 9/11 world.
“That she can repeat it over and over is just a crossword puzzle,” aviation safety expert Jeff Price told CBS 2.
The genius of her way of working is in its simplicity, ”he said. “These are the unsophisticated kinds of plans that are most successful.”
Hartman, who struggles with bipolar disorder, claims police are still blaming her mental illness for her long rap page, instead of disability at the airport.
‘I know they’re still emphasizing mental illness … law enforcers … want it. But umm … [laugh] no, I’m pretty good, ”she apparently said.
According to WGN, charges of escape are pending against Hartman.