Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
An Indian-origin California man, Aditya Singh, has been detained for hiding out at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for nearly three months claiming he was too afraid of getting exposed to the deadly coronavirus.
Singh, a 36-year-old man, has now been detained by the local authorities on charges of felony criminal trespass in a restricted area of the airport and misdemeanor theft, as per the prosecutors.
As per the officials, Singh had arrived at the O'Hare airport on October 19 and hid out in the airport's security zone ever since without being found. Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz, who presided over the case, could not register the facts as true, due to the shocking nature of the incident.
"So if I understand you correctly,” Ortiz said, “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? I want to understand you correctly," Ortiz said.
After three months of successful hiding, Singh was caught in the act when two employees of the United Airlines approached and questioned him, demanding his identity card. Singh, slyly, showcased the airport ID badge that he was wearing. This badge was later identified to be of an operations manager, who had reported it to be missing on October 26.
The United Airlines employees, on identifying the incident, informed the police, who then took him into custody within hours from the Terminal 2 near Gate F12 of the airport.
With a master's degree in hospitality, Singh has a clear record and has had no reported criminal incidents, according to the Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood. He has been reported to be unemployed and a current residence of Los Angeles suburb of Orange.
Singh has been asked to pay $1,000 as a release fees and has been put under a permanent 'no entry' list from this airport.
"The court finds these facts and circumstances quite shocking for the alleged period of time that this occurred," Judge Oritz 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."
Ref: wionews, the guardian
