69-year-old Marilyn Hartman has been re-arrested after trying to sneak on a flight for which she did not buy a ticket. She successfully hid 22 commercial flights in the past two decades and has just been re-arrested for attempting to board a flight at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday, March 16th.
Hartman managed to escape from a residential facility where she is being monitored electronically, CNN reported. Staff immediately tried to contact Hartman via the built-in phone. When they lock up in her place, she’s on her way to O’Hare’s terminal 1. An alarm was set off on her ankle bracelet, and she was arrested shortly thereafter.
Hartman has since been sent back to Cook County Jail and may not post the bond.
But the real mystery here is why Hartman kept all these planes away and how exactly she did them. However, the answer to the previous question is sad.
Hartman suffers from an undiagnosed mental illness that often includes paranoia. In one case, she tried to sneak on a flight to Hawaii because she believed she had cancer and ‘wanted to go to a warm place and die, ” The Guardian reported. She did not have cancer. Later she felt that she ‘really wanted to get off the island. ”
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The Guardian’s article involved extensive interviews with Hartman herself, claiming she was the victim of a widespread conspiracy intended to harass her for the rest of her life.
“Barack Obama knew about my case for 25 years and everything that went wrong when the decision came against me, but chose not to do the right thing,” she claimed in one email. She said she experienced such severe fight-or-flight reactions that she was essentially forced by the instincts to board a plane and try to get away from the vast network of people dedicated to her.
In terms of how she could do it, things are more complicated. In many cases, she did the same investigation for weapons we all do via TSA, but she was able to do so without identification or boarding pass. She holds her head, hides behind other passengers and projects the image of a slightly confused but completely insensitive older woman. She came through ‘dive under the velvet ropes, ride back in small groups, present others ‘boarding passes, or simply answer’ja ‘, when airport staff ask leading questions such as: ‘Are you Maria Sandgren?’ ‘When she was caught by airport workers, she was generally just thrown out and not arrested. The Guardian calls her “persistent”.
Hartman’s story is wild, but it’s also incredibly sad. It’s a homeless person woman who obviously did not receive the kind care that can transform her general mindset.