'Serial Stowaway' Arrested At Chicago Airport, Again

CHICAGO, IL — A woman known as the "serial stowaway" was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago Sunday. Marilyn Hartman, 66, is known for repeatedly sneaking onto flights. She's now back in jail three days after she was released.

In a short hearing last Thursday, Cook County judge banned Hartman from O'Hare and Midway airports after she snuck on to a Chicago-to-London flight earlier in January. Her bond was also reduced, and the requirement for her to wear an electronic monitoring device was rescinded, opening the door for her release, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Hartman, who has a history as an airline stowaway, was charged with felony theft and misdemeanor criminal trespass for allegedly slipping past security at O'Hare International Airport and on to a British Airways flight to London's Heathrow International Airport, where she was detained by British Customs. According to Chicago police, O'Hare security cameras caught Hartman passing through airport security without a passport or boarding pass Jan. 15.

After her arrest following her return to the United States on Jan. 18, Hartman's bond was set at $25,000 with the stipulation that she find housing in Cook County so that she could be electronically monitored with an ankle bracelet. Before the incident, Hartman had been living in a nursing facility in Grayslake in Lake County, and the Cook County Sheriff's Office objected to her release, saying she was "not an appropriate candidate for electronic monitoring and is in need of intense treatment."

Over the past few years, Hartman has faced charges in similar incidents in Chicago and Jacksonville, Florida, as well as the West Coast. Authorities there accused her of trying to stowaway on flights from San Francisco to Hawaii on six separate occasions in 2014.

The Transportation Security Administration is investigating the current incident, but the agency will not comment about how Hartman has been able to find her way past security so many times. Cook County prosecutors are seeking an indictment against Hartman in last week's case, according to the Tribune.

A judge had set her bond at $25,000 with the housing stipulation at a hearing Saturday, according to NBC 5. Hartman had been living in a Waukegan nursing center before she was evicted for not paying $55,000 in back rent, the report added. Just before her arrest, she had been living at a facility in Grayslake.

Hartman now faces charges of misdemeanor criminal trespass and violation of bail bond.

Article by Joe Vince, Amber Fisher

Photo via Chicago Police Department