Multiple arrests, restraining orders and bans from airports just aren’t enough to keep a serial stowaway from trying to snag a plane seat. A woman arrested Monday at LAX after hopping a Southwest flight from San Jose was arrested yet again Thursday for wandering the airport without a ticket.
The Los Angeles Times reports the 62-year-old woman was taken into custody after authorities spotted her boarding a FlyAway bus at Union Station and getting off at LAX.
Upon exiting the bus, the woman entered the airport and walked through three terminals for nearly an hour. Airport police say she had no intention to purchase a ticket despite having enough money to do so.
“It’s a big deal when anyone tries to avoid security, be it a 62-year-old grandmother or a 24-year-old terrorist,” the airport police chief told The Times.
The woman made headlines earlier this week when she was arrested after sneaking on a Southwest flight from Mineta San Jose International Airport to LAX.
A source familiar with that incident says the woman attempted to get around TSA ticket screeners three times before finally slipping by while an agent was examining a family’s tickets.
The woman then reportedly went through security screening devices before unsuccessfully attempting to board several planes in the B terminal of the airport. Eventually she was able to sidle past the gate operator and onto the Southwest Flight to LAX.
It was unclear why the woman was not removed from the terminal following her unsuccessful attempts to board other flights.
A head count of passengers on the flight, which continued on to Phoenix, didn’t add up to the correct number, so the crew asked everyone to show their tickets. Unable to produce a ticket out of thin air, the stowaway was arrested.
Before successfully boarding that flight, the woman had been arrested six times related to attempts to sneak on planes or circumventing airport security at San Francisco International Airport, where she’s also banned.
According to the Times, on Wednesday the woman pleaded no contest and promised not to return to LAX without a ticket.
However, airport police weren’t about to take her on her word, officials circulated fliers with a photograph of the woman to officers and staff, you know, just in case she turned up again. And they were right.
Stowaway banned from LAX is arrested again at the airport [The Los Angeles Times]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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