Marilyn Hartman, the so-called “Serial Stowaway,” will appear in a Cook County courtroom once again, after she was arrested at a Chicago airport for the eighth time in three years.
Hartman, a Chicago native who has been arrested dozens of times at airports across the country, was caught at the airport Sunday — just three days after she was arrested at the airport after sneaking onto a British Airways flight to London and landing at Heathrow Airport.
Hartman, 66, was spotted shortly after midnight Sunday in an area of the airport that services privately owned planes, Cook County prosecutors said. When she refused to leave, employees called police. She left before officers arrived.
Authorities found Hartman at 1:35 a.m. in the lower level of Terminal 3 and arrested her, prosecutors said. She was ordered held without bail for violating the terms of her bond.
A week ago, Hartman was released from Cook County Jail after receiving a stern warning from Judge Donald Panarese Jr., who let her go free on a recognizance bond, but told her three times she had to stay clear of the airports.
“Stay away from O’Hare and Midway,” Panarese told her.
Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said Hartman wasn’t eligible for tracking using an electronic ankle monitor because she doesn’t live outside Cook County in north suburban Grayslake, a requirement for electronic monitoring. In court records from her previous arrests, Hartman has listed her address at Chicago homeless shelters, or simply as “homeless.”
Hartman has been arrested for sneaking onto flights, evading security or wandering the grounds of airports in Hawaii, California, Florida and elsewhere, and thus far has only befuddled law enforcement officials who have had to deal with her.
Hartman has undergone psychological testing following many of her arrests, and each time has been deemed mentally fit to face charges. But the criminal charges she faces typically are misdemeanors, and as a nonviolent criminal, she seldom faces significant jail time.
Her most recent batch of charges includes a felony count for theft greater than $50 — the $3,400 purchase price of a round-trip ticket to London — but it appears likely British Airways will follow the example of other airlines and won’t press charges.
