Let the obligatory references to The Terminal begin.
[quote]Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz expressed surprise at the unusual circumstances of the case, the newspaper reported.
“So if I understand you correctly,” Ortiz said, “you’re telling me that an unauthorized, non-employee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the O’Hare airport terminal from October 19, 2020, to January 16, 2021, and was not detected? I want to understand you correctly.”[/quote]
I’m a little confused. People sleep in airports all the time. I’ve spent the night in O’Hare. But:
Singh is reported to have been apprehended after being approached by two United Airlines employees who asked to see his identification. He’s said to have then shown them an airport ID badge that belonged to an operations manager who had reported it missing in late October.
[…]
Aditya Udai Singh, 33, was arrested on Saturday morning local time at O’Hare and charged with impersonation in a restricted area of the airport and theft of less than $500.
I’m not sure why that initial interaction even happened.
The article said the man was in the airport because he was “scared to go home because of Covid”. An airport seems to be the last place you’d want to hang out if you’re scared of Covid.
other passengers had provided him with food
So he was just begging food all that time?
Restricted area may mean an employees only area and not just ‘past security.’
He had a stolen/found ID badge that may have gotten him access somewhere.
On another board someone said he was seen on video cooking for himself in one of the restaurant’s kitchens after hours, but I can’t find any source confirming that right now.
You would think that if a badge was reported stolen or missing, they would have deactivated it. Or at least kept an eye out to see if it was being used.
He may have just waved it at people who questioned why he was there and told them something like “working double shifts, man I’m beat!”. Most folks would just leave and move on at that point or offer him some coffee, at which point he could bum like “Left money at home”. With the right personality and story I could see it happening.
Given how disheveled he looks, and his Middle Eastern/South Asian appearance, and that airport workers would have seen him repeatedly over a period of months, it’s hard to see how he could have evaded suspicion.
His beard needs a trim, which could be a fashion choice. And if I see the same person repeatedly over a period of months, regardless of appearance, I would be less likely to challenge his presence or be suspicious, not more. I think he must have been impersonating a person who belonged there, successfully until the last time. (Not a specific person who belonged there, but just “someone who belonged there.”)
However, he was apparently going in and out of the security area, since he was also interacting with passengers. To me that makes it more serious, because he evaded the checks multiple times. Not good security. As for his reason, I don’t buy it for a minute.
They should turn this story into a movie with Tom Hanks.
The article just says “restricted area” and “security zone,” which to me just means he was within the concourse areas within the security checkpoints to enter the boarding areas, where all the passengers are. It doesn’t suggest he was going in and out through any security checkpoints. I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.
Beat me to it…
This is from here:
Airports have several restricted zones where only authorized personnel should be allowed to access, to maintain security standards.
If they said “restricted,” even if they used “area” instead of “zone,” that’s where I’m getting that from. And by “authorized personnnel” they don’t mean passengers. So what I meant was, he was going from security areas where checked passengers can be, to more secure areas where only authorized personnel should be.
Another article I saw said that he was afraid of flying because of Covid.
But both articles say that he’s a resident of Los Angeles, and that he flew into O’Hare from Los Angeles. Which makes no sense whatsoever if what he’s afraid of is flying. It might make some small amount of sense if what he’s afraid of is Los Angeles. Could he have thought that covid’s much worse there than in Chicago?
– Yes, I also suspect that living in O’Hare Airport carries a greater risk of being exposed to covid than staying home in at least most situations in Los Angeles. But I’m trying to find something here that makes sense if one starts from incorrect premises. I can’t find anything that makes sense, no matter how incorrect the premises are, in saying ‘I’m afraid of catching covid on a plane so I’m going to get on a plane for the sole purpose of trying to live in an airport.’
– Maybe he wasn’t afraid of catching covid on a plane until after he was already on the plane that got him to O’Hare, and became frightened by something that happened on the plane? a maskless coughing seatmate or some such?
Or, I suppose, the whole thing’s got nothing to do with being afraid of covid at all, and he just said that because he felt he needed to say something and that’s what came into his head. Maybe he flew into Chicago expecting to be met by somebody, they didn’t show up, and there he was in O’Hare airport with no money and no idea what to do.
I don’t see any implication of that in the article.
How long until Tom Hanks plays every person in the world in a movie? 
It’s already been done with Jason Statham.
Surely he didn’t go without bathing somehow. Where could he do that? And what about getting fresh clothes, or washing them?