Police arrests Indian American man found hiding at Chicago’s International Airport for 3 months

A 36-year-old Indian origin man from Los Angeles arrested by US police  as he was found hiding in a safe zone of Chicago’s international airport.

According to PTI, Aditya Singh was so scared to fly due to Covid-19 and hid in a protected area of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for three months until the authorities found him.
Singh has been charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft, the report said.

Prosecutors told a court that Singh arrived at O’Hare on a flight from Los Angeles on October 19 and allegedly has lived in the airport’s security zone ever since, without detection.
Singh was arrested after two United Airlines staff asked him to produce his identification. He showed them a badge, but it reportedly belonged to an operations manager who reported it missing in October.

He reportedly found the staff badge in the airport and was “scared to go home due to COVID”, Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hagerty said.

The airline employees called the Police and they arrested him on Saturday morning at Terminal 2 near Gate F12.

Singh managed to live on handouts from other passengers, Hagerty told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz.

The judge expressed surprise at the circumstances of the case, the report said.

“So if I understand you correctly, you’re telling me that an unauthorized, non-employee 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? I want to understand you correctly,” Ortiz said, PTI reported.

Singh lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Orange with roommates and does not have a criminal background, according to Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood. She said Singh has a master’s degree in hospitality and is unemployed, the report said.

Smallwood acknowledged the circumstances were unusual but noted the allegations were non-violent.

It was unclear what brought Singh to Chicago, the report said.

Singh has been barred from entering the airport if he is able to post the USD 1,000 for bail. He is due back in court on January 27.

“The court finds these facts and circumstances quite shocking for the alleged period of time that this occurred,” the judge said.

“Being in a secured part of the airport under a fake ID badge allegedly, based upon the need for airports to be absolutely secure so that people feel safe to travel, I do find those alleged actions do make him a danger to the community,” Ortiz said.

The Chicago Department of Aviation, which oversees the city’s airports, said in a statement: “While this incident remains under investigation, we have been able to determine that this gentleman did not pose a security risk to the airport or to the travelling public.”