Paranoid Man Hides In Airport For 3 Months
A California man has recently been charged with criminal trespassing and misdemeanor theft. Aditya Singh, 36, was, up until recently, living inside a secured area of the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois.
Officials say Singh was too scared to continue traveling because of COVID-19 after arriving at the Chicago airport from a flight that had departed from Los Angeles on Oct. 19. Singh took refuge in the airport’s security zone, where he remained for three months, living off food from passengers.
Singh found an ID badge and continue to wear it, helping keep himself under the radar. However, Saturday, January 16, 2020, Singh was finally approached and asked to show his credentials by two United Airlines employees. Assistant State’s Attorney Kathleen Hagerty said Singh lowered his mask and revealed the stolen credentials, triggering the employees to call 911. Police took Singh into custody before noon that Saturday.
Being undetected by anyone for three months is no easy task, especially ina high-security area like an airport, and Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz was quite bothered after a prosecutor detailed the allegations.
The judge said,
So if I understand you correctly you’re telling me that an unauthorized, nonemployee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the O’Hare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected?
According to Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood, Singh has a Master’s Degree in Hospitality and has absolutely no criminal background, and all of the allegations are non-violent. He may have been scared and reacted very dramatically to some breaking news he saw on an airport TV screen.
Innocent as his intent was or not, he is not allowed ever to step foot on the airport's premises even after he pays his $1,000 bond--ouch.
If you think a human-being hiding out in the airport for three months is wild, check out THIS LIST of some of the craziest (and maybe dumbest) things Texas TSA has found and airport checkpoints-I don't think hiding firearms in Playdoh will prevent them from being revealed through an x-ray scanner...