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A man was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport this weekend after spending three months airside in the terminal undetected.
Man arrested after living in O’Hare
A 36-year-old man was arrested on Saturday and has been charged with felony trespassing in a restricted area of an airport and theft of misdemeanor. He was banned from entering the airport and the bond was set at $ 1,000.
The man flew from Los Angeles to Chicago on October 19, 2020 and had not left the secure area of the airport since. How did he finally get caught? On Saturday, two United Airlines employees approached the man and demanded to see his identity, having realized that he had spent a lot of time in the terminal. At that time, the man showed them an airport ID badge which he was wearing on a thong around his neck.
However, the badge belonged to an operations manager who had reported the badge missing on October 26. At that time, 911 was called, at which time the man was taken into custody.
Why did the man stay at the airport?
This is the part of the story that is difficult to understand. Why would anyone want to spend a few months at O’Hare? The man was said to have been “scared to go home because of COVID”, and that is why he decided to spend months at the airport. He survived by asking other passengers to give him money for food. Apparently he had a place to stay and roommates in California.
In many ways, the explanation of what happened raises more questions than anything else. Arguably the most dangerous part of the travel experience these days is being in airports rather than on planes, given that the latter has at least much better air filtration.
We have sometimes heard of people living in terminals due to entry restrictions for countries changing, leaving them with no options. However, that was not the case here, since it was a domestic flight.
We also sometimes hear about homeless people trying to make a living in airports, but it’s almost always city-side, as they usually don’t buy tickets.
Another story that comes to mind is that of the serial stowaway a few years ago who would constantly find a way to go past security and get on a plane, even without a ticket. She even did it several times at O’Hare Airport.
Was there a security risk here?
The judge in the case expressed his disbelief that someone could live in a “secure” part of the airport without being detected:
“So, if I understand you correctly, you are telling me that an unauthorized, self-employed person would have lived in a secure part of the O’Hare airport terminal from October 19, 2020 to January 16, 2021, and did not detected? I want to understand you well.
Personally, I’m not really surprised:
- It is not because the airside area is “secure” that everyone keeps tabs, but rather that they have been checked and had a valid boarding pass upon arrival or departure.
- You see people sleeping through the night in airport terminals
- Many airport employees can be seen hanging out in the terminal on a daily basis, so it is not necessarily unusual to observe the same person every day.
- It was even more difficult to identify people when everyone was wearing masks
Personally, I don’t find this detail surprising at all, and I’m not shocked that he was able to live in O’Hare for three months undetected. The real question is, why would he want to do this …
At the end of the line
A man has been arrested after living at Chicago O’Hare Airport for three months, allegedly because he was afraid to return home due to coronavirus. I’m not sure I’m following the logic, but it’s definitely a strange situation. The man was eventually arrested on Sunday, after being approached by employees and asked to show his ID card. At that time, it was determined that he had a lanyard with a stolen airport employee ID card.
What do you think of this situation?
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