The airport seems like the last place a person would want to quarantine if they’re scared of contracting Covid-19 but a guy from Los Angeles thought it sounded like the safest place to chill for a while.
On October 19, 2020, Aditya Singh, of California, landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and allegedly never left.
This past Saturday, Singh was taken into custody by airport officials who figured out Singh had been living in the airport for three months. The 36-year-old Singh allegedly posed as an airport employee using a badge that was reported stolen on October 26th.
Two United Airlines employees approached Singh and asked to see his identification. Singh showed the badge belonging to an airport worker who reported it missing months earlier. Singh told officials he found the badge.
Singh wasn’t just hiding among passengers and in bathrooms, the man was allegedly hanging out in the security zone area of O’Hare.
“So if I understand you correctly,” asked Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz during Singh’s hearing this weekend. “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.”
At a Sunday hearing, a prosecutor said Singh “was scared to go home due to COVID” and officials are still unsure why the man chose O’Hare as his final destination or if he has family or connections in the area.
Singh was charged with felony criminal trespass in a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft. Judge Ortiz set Singh’s bail at $1,000 and ordered him to stay out of O’Hare International Airport.
[via Chicago Tribune]