“Serial Stowaway” Marilyn Hartman was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday, authorities confirmed to FOX News with the Sheriff’s Office in Cook County.
According to police, Hartman was on electronic monitoring for a previous offense when the arrest took place Tuesday.
At about 12 p.m., police were notified that Hartman had left the living facility where she was staying while she was on the electronic monitoring program. Investigators immediately began working to locate her via GPS on her ankle bracelet.
According to authorities, staff tried to contact Hartman with a built-in phone, but Hartman did not respond. The ankle bracelet indicated that Hartman was traveling in the direction of O’Hare International Airport.
Marilyn Hartman (photo courtesy of the Sheriff’s Office)
While investigators were on their way to O’Hare, the sheriff noticed that Chicago police appeared to be Hartman on their way to the airport and at 1:38 a.m. informed Chicago police that she was in the vicinity of Terminal 1 .
An alarm siren was activated on Hartman’s device and she was arrested by Chicago police. Hartman did not enter any safe areas.
Hartman is currently in Chicago police custody. She is expected to be re-arrested in prison and the sheriff will seek approval for the charge of misdemeanor.
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Hartman has been arrested several times at O’Hare, Midway and airports across the country for trying to circumvent airport security, and recently opened up to CBS 2 about her history of illegal joyrides.
Hartman reportedly estimates she took flights for at least thirty years without paying for a ticket.
An investigation by CBS2 of court reports and police reports showed that Hartman was repeatedly caught carrying a boarding pass of another passenger or arriving in another country without documentation to get through Customs.
“I came to them, that’s the thing that’s so crazy, by following someone who would carry them like a blue bag,” she explained. “And the next thing I know, I get in the TSA line and TSA lets me through, and they think I’m with the man with the blue bag.”
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Hartman recalled that she first began flying illegally in 2002.
“The first time I could get through, I flew to Copenhagen,” she said. “The second time I fly into Paris.”
However, Hartman’s first arrest was only in August 2014, when she flew without a ticket from San Jose, California, to Los Angeles. A judge dropped her with a warning, but she did it again.
She was arrested again in Jacksonville, Florida, seven months later after flying in from Minnesota without a ticket. The court overseeing the case has ruled that she is not mentally competent to face prosecution, but Hartman maintains that is not the case.
“I know they keep stressing about mental illness. Law enforcement wants it. But umm … no, I’m pretty good,” she told CBS2 with a laugh. “I do not care if people say, ‘She’s a nut. ‘Because if I look at it objectively, that’s how I see it, is madness. I deliberately remained a mystery because of the crazy factor. It was like something outside of a movie. ‘
According to police documents, Hartman was placed on the TSA offense list in January 2015. She was later referred to as a ‘serial getaway’ in April 2015, as a ‘high security risk’ in May 2015 and a ‘regular getaway’ in July 2015.
The last time Hartman successfully boarded a flight was in January 2018, when she slipped past O’Hare at security and boarded a British Airways flight to London Heathrow. However, she was caught on arrival in the UK, where border officials discovered she did not have the necessary documentation. Hartman was sent back to Chicago, where she is charged with theft and trespassing.
Hartman was released from custody and ordered to wear a single monitor and undergo psychiatric evaluation. She later pleaded guilty to the offense and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In October 2019, she was spotted at O’Hare Airport and arrested for trying to circumvent security without a boarding pass. She was later charged with housebreaking, criminal trespass and breach of probation.
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A year and a half after her latest arrest, Hartman began writing back and forth with CBS2 investigator Brad Edwards. Edwards conducted a series of telephone interviews with Hartman for the store’s latest report.
Hartman apologized to law enforcement and the TSA, saying, “It was not my intention to make their work more difficult.”
She noted that her bipolar disorder encourages her to take the flights when she falls into a depressive episode.
“When I was riding the plane, I was not happy. I was not ‘Oh, I’m going here or there’ – I was actually in a depressed state of mind,” Hartman said. “I’m bipolar. And that’s something I’ve been rejecting for years.
She also reveals about her difficult childhood and tells Edwards that “there is so much violence and mental illness in the household.”
Hartman added that she waited to give an interview “until I was confident I would not take an illegal flight again.”
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Hartman appeared during a court hearing in early March to discuss the details of a plea deal in her latest case.
Prosecutors suggested that the charge of burglary be dropped and Hartman be sentenced to 18 months probation with mental health counseling. However, Judge Peggy Chiampas rejected the motion, saying, “I will not give her a third trial.”
“I have a hard judge on this case,” Hartman said. “Judge Chiampas is addressing me about the situation I found myself in.”
According to CBS 2, Hartman’s plea agreement is expected to be finalized in early April when all parties go to court again.