Chicago woman snuck onto flight without ticket to see Jay-Z: prosecutors
[New York Post, CPD]
A Chicago woman skirted several layers of security and somehow boarded a plane at O’Hare International Airport without a ticket, hoping to fly to Los Angeles to see rapper Jay-Z, prosecutors said.
Yaazmina Payton, 23, was arrested at the Chicago airport early Sunday after she was identified as the woman who “boarded an airplane without proper documentation,” police said in a statement.
Prosecutors told a judge Monday that Payton was caught ducking under ropes at a Terminal 3 boarding door near the ticket gate of an American Airlines flight destined for Los Angeles when someone alerted a ticket agent, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Payton — who couldn’t provide a ticket or a boarding pass for the flight — was arrested “without incident” and later charged with felony criminal trespass, police said.
After her arrest, Payton told investigators she pushed past a gate into a secure area at the airport when Transportation Security Administration officers were distracted, the Tribune reported.
Payton, of Chicago’s Marquette Park section, has PTSD and anxiety disorder, her court-appointed attorney told a judge during Monday’s hearing.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jocelyn Schieve told a judge that Payton also confessed to storming past another security checkpoint and claimed she was trying to get to Los Angeles to see Jay-Z.
A judge ordered Payton to be released on $500 bail. She was also banned from returning to O’Hare, the Tribune reported.
A TSA spokesman told The Post Tuesday that Payton had been “successfully screened” by its agents before she entered a secure area at O’Hare.
“The safety and security of all travelers are our top priority,” spokesman Sonny Lorrius said in a statement.
American Airlines reps at O’Hare requested police assistance for a “possible security issue” during the incident, a spokeswoman for American Airlines told The Post in a statement Tuesday.
“The flight departed to LAX after law enforcement searched and cleared the aircraft for departure,” according to the statement, which referred additional inquires to Chicago police.