July 04--A woman dubbed a "serial stowaway" because of her record of trying to sneak aboard airplanes has been arrested at Midway Airport a day after she was released from jail, officials said.
Marilyn Hartman, 63, was released from Cook County Jail late Thursday afternoon after serving two months for trying to get past security at O'Hare and Midway airports in April and May.
"I feel free as a bird," she told reporters.
It didn't last long. On Friday evening, she boarded a plane at Midway with a valid ticket, but police say she caused a disturbance and was escorted off the plane by police, according to Officer Jose Estrada, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.
Hartman was charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, and later released from custody, Estrada said.
Hartman has tried numerous times in recent years to board flights without a ticket and succeeded at least once, flying from San Jose to Los Angeles last August on a Southwest Airlines flight.
In that incident, she slipped past an agent who was checking a family's boarding passes, went through security screening and then somehow got past a gate agent.
When she was released from Cook County Jail on Thursday, she said she was done with stowaway attempts and would stay out of airports unless she had a ticket.
"If I have a ticket, I can go," she said. "If I have a ticket to ride. Sounds like a song. But if I have that, I can go."
.jpg?w=600)
