In the United States, Marilyn Hartman is known as the “serial stowaway” because her exploits have spawned countless news stories, and she has enough near-identical mugshots to cover a wall. Last week, she made it from Chicago O’Hare all the way to London Heathrow without a ticket or a passport. She kept her head down, hid behind passengers, walked passed security agents and ticketing agents. She has been doing this since 2009, according to multiple police reports. She has snuck in with small groups, answered “yes” when asked if she was someone else, and presented other people’s boarding passes.
Hartman is not just trying to get a free vacation. She has been homeless a long time, and in 2009, she told police in Hawaii that she “really wanted to get off the island,” according to The Guardian. She also seemed to believe that there is a vast network of people dedicated to harassing her. But The Guardian writes that the real was she was able to do it is that she is a grandmotherly white woman who blends into crowds and doesn’t make security nervous. The Guardian continues, saying that Hartman has “shone a light on a justice system ill-equipped to handle mentally ill rule-breakers who don’t present a serious threat to themselves or others.”
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