The woman from Chicago who managed to sneak past airport security and board dozens of non-ticket flights allegedly escaped from a residential electronic monitoring unit before returning to the airport.
“Stowaway in series,” Marilyn Hartman, was arrested at O’Hare airport after fleeing the court-ordered facility on Tuesday, according to WGN.
Investigators were able to arrest Hartman at the international airport because of his tracking device, the report said.
The 69-year-old – who has tricked the TSA at least 30 times over three decades – could not evade the checkpoint this week, and police picked her up in the unsafe section of the airport, reported the local station.
Hartman has been arrested for security breaches several times at O’Hare, Midway and other airports across the country. She even deceived customs officials and boarded planes to London, Copenhagen and Paris, according to an interview with CBS 2 in Chicago, which was broadcast coincidentally only on Sunday.
Hartman told the station he was not a criminal mind.
“It simply came to our notice then. I never managed to get on a plane alone. I’ve always been let go, “Hartman said. “I mean, I managed to get through the security line without a boarding pass.”
“I approached them, this is such a crazy thing, chasing someone they would carry like a blue bag,” the Second City clandestine told CBS. “And the next thing I know, I get on the TSA line and TSA lets me through and they think I’m the guy with the blue bag.”
Security professionals told the station that her simple tactics are very alarming in a post-9/11 world.
“For her to be able to repeat that over and over again, it’s just a mind,” aviation security expert Jeff Price told CBS 2.
The genius of its mode of operation is in its simplicity “, he said. “Inexpensive types of plans are often the most successful.”
Hartman, who is battling bipolar disorder, says police continue to blame her mental illness for her long rap sheet, instead of the ineptitude of airport workers.
“I know he continues to emphasize mental illness … law enforcement … would like to have that available. But umm … [laugh] no, I’m pretty good, “she said.
According to WGN, charges of escaping crime are pending against Hartman.