Prosecutors said 36-year-old Aditya Singh was too afraid to fly back to Los Angeles because of COVID-19.
Prosecutors in Cook County said Singh was found with the wrong credentials of an airport worker and survived in a safe area of the airport.
Singh arrived at O’Hare’s Terminal 2 on a flight from Los Angeles back on October 19, according to prosecutors.
Since then, he has lived in the security zone of the airport.
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On Saturday, two United Airlines employees confronted Singh and asked him to see his work report, which had been reported stolen by an airport operations manager.
Singh was arrested and told authorities he had found the credentials and was afraid to fly home in a pandemic.
He was charged with felony criminal mischief in a restricted area of an airport and theft.
The judge expressed shock that Singh was not detected earlier.
“While this incident remains under investigation, we were able to establish that this gentleman did not pose a security risk to the airport or to the traveling public,” the Chicago Aviation Department said in a statement Monday morning. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners on a thorough investigation into this issue.”
Singh’s defense lawyer made a request to allow Singh to fly home.
The judge denied this and set bail at $ 10,000.
The video in the media player above was used in a previous report.
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