'Serial stowaway' slips aboard Minn.-Fla. flight

Garrett Pelican | WTLV-TV, Jacksonville, Fla.

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Serial stowaway' slips aboard flight to Florida A woman is being called a "serial stowaway" after she allegedly slipped past airport security and onto a flight to Jacksonville, Florida. Police say this is not her first time getting on a flight without a ticket.

YULEE, Fla. — An alleged serial stowaway who somehow slipped past airport security onto a flight to Jacksonville and then reportedly talked her way into a villa at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort had to change her accommodations Monday morning — to a cell at the Nassau County Jail.

Marilyn Jean Hartman, 63, faces felony fraud charges and a misdemeanor trespassing charge after allegedly hitching a ride on a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Jacksonville International Airport Sunday and then posing as a guest of the resort, according to the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.

What remains unclear, though, is exactly how Hartman did it. The Transportation Security Administration says it's looking into the matter.

Airport security has been beefed up noticeably in recent years. Nonetheless, Hartman somehow allegedly boarded the flight without a boarding pass or ticket and landed at Jacksonville International Airport Sunday. When she got there, a shuttle was waiting to take guests to the Omni Plantation.

Deputies say the shuttle's driver asked Hartman if she was a guest, giving the guest's name, and Hartman replied she was. When she arrived at the resort, she checked into a $300/night villa under the guest's name, according to an arrest report.

It wasn't until hours later, when the real guest arrived to check in, that Hartman's story started to unravel, officials said.

A concierge called the room and asked Hartman what her name was and she reportedly replied with the guest's name. But when the concierge asked her to come by the front desk to verify what was believed to be an error, Hartman vanished, the report said.

On Monday morning, Hartman was found staying in a first floor room that was under renovation. Resort security detained her until authorities could arrive.

Last August, Hartman, who had been released from jail for stowing away on a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles was rearrested at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to sneak aboard another flight, authorities said.

Hartman was arrested less than 24 hours after she pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing and was ordered to stay away from LAX. She was also placed on 24 months' probation.

She boarded the L.A.-bound Southwest Airlines Flight 3785 in San Jose by sneaking past security with a family, federal officials said. At least three previous attempts failed.

Airline personnel did not discover she did not have a ticket until the plane landed.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that Hartman had tried seven times to board a plane at San Francisco International Airport before heading down Highway 101 to San Jose. She had already been banned from the airport for trying to illegally board flights.

Speaking to reporters, Hartman blamed her escapades on being homeless, regretted what she had done and vowed not to stowaway again.

"I've been in some pretty awful situations so I took desperate measures," she said.

The Mercury News reported Hartman had lived alone in women's shelters and single-occupancy motels on the West Coast for a decade. She had been in a mental health program, and a judge found her to be suffering a "major mental illness."

Contributing: Michael Winter, USA TODAY