‘Serial Stowaway’ Strikes Again: Marilyn Hartman Sneaks Onto Florida Flight
Say what you will about Marilyn Hartman, who has earned the title “Serial Stowaway,” but her resilience, craftiness, and overall wily ability to sneak through airport security and finagle a free flight is truly amazing.
And Hartman has done it again, reports the Huffington Post: the Serial Stowaway’s latest journey took her from Minnesota to Jacksonville, Florida, for free! Despite Hartman’s vacation plans ultimately going down in flames, neither airport security nor airline personnel could keep the Serial Stowaway from completing another successful stowaway flight.
Whether or not stowaway Hartman was able to board the plane with a bottle of water or other generally prohibited personal items is, as yet, unknown.
As the Serial Stowaway, Marilyn Hartman also defines the word recidivism, having been arrested for several past stowaway transgressions, attempts, and related stowaway offenses.
Apparently undeterred by these past run-ins with the law, however, this time, Hartman, a 63-year-old California woman, was able to somehow sneak her way through Minnesota airport security, hop the flight to Florida, disembark, and go check into someone else’s hotel room!
It is believed Hartman rode a shuttle bus from the airport to the rather posh Omni Amelia Island Plantation Hotel. Once there, she allegedly put the same type of serial stowaway trickery she uses for free flights and received the room key for a $300 villa.
This Hartman did under the guise that she was part of the “Biggest Loser” program, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
However, with another successful serial stowaway effort under her belt, Marilyn Hartman faced difficulty keeping hold of the free lodging.
When the guest that had really booked the $300 villa arrived, Hartman made a Goldilocks-like exit from the accommodations, police finally catching up with the serial stowaway in another room on the ground floor that was being renovated, according to USA Today.
Current charges against Marilyn Hartman reportedly include impersonation, defrauding an innkeeper, and trespassing, said Nassau County Sheriff’s deputies.
Last August, Ms. Hartman was able to stowaway on a San Jose Flight to Los Angeles, for which she was arrested. But less than 24 hours later, she was taken into custody again while trying to stowaway on yet another flight.
For these LAX stowaway attempts, Marilyn Hartman received a charge of trespassing and was told to steer clear of the Los Angeles airport. The Serial Stowaway was also placed on 24 months’ probation.
Hartman was initially able to get on the San Jose to LAX flight by by melting in with a family as they passed through security, according to federal officials. This successful boarding followed at least three other unsuccessful stowaway attempts, and airline officials didn’t figure out that Marilyn Hartman didn’t have a ticket until after they’d arrived in Los Angeles.
The San Jose Mercury News also notes that Hartman was arrested several times in 2014 while trying to stowaway on planes at San Francisco International Airport.
Following these arrests, it was deemed Hartman suffered from a “major mental illness” and she was admitted to a mental health facility. But the Serial Stowaway apparently had more travels in mind, Marilyn Hartman walking out of the unsecured facility after just a week.
[Image via the San Jose Mercury News]
