CHICAGO – A California man the police said claims to be too afraid to fly due to COVID-19 hid for three months in a safe area at O’Hare International Airport until his arrest over the weekend, prosecutors said in Sunday.
Aditya Singh, 36, is accused of criminal intrusion into a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft.
In the title court on Sunday, prosecutors said Singh arrived on O’Hare on a flight from Los Angeles on October 19 and has reportedly lived in the airport’s security zone since then, undetected.
Cook County judge Susana Ortiz reacted in disbelief on Sunday after a prosecutor detailed the charges.
“So, if I understood correctly,” said Ortiz, “you are telling me that an unauthorized individual, not employed, was allegedly living in a safe 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. “
Early on Saturday afternoon, two United Airlines employees approached Singh and asked to see his identification. Assistant Attorney Kathleen Hagerty said Singh lowered the face mask and showed them an airport identification badge he was wearing around his neck.
In fact, the badge belonged to an operations manager who reported his disappearance on October 26. Employees called 911. Police arrested Singh on Saturday morning at Terminal 2 near Gate F12.
Hagerty said that Singh allegedly found the badge at the airport and was “afraid to go home because of COVID”. She told the judge that other passengers were giving her food.
Singh lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Orange with roommates and has no criminal record, according to assistant public defender Courtney Smallwood. She said he has a master’s degree in hospitality and is unemployed.
Smallwood acknowledged that the circumstances were unusual, but noted that the allegations were not violent. It is unclear what brought Singh to Chicago and whether he has anything to do with the area.
As a condition of bail, Ortiz has banned Singh from stepping on the airport again if he can pay the $ 1,000 he needs for his release. He is due to return to court on January 27.
“The court finds these facts and circumstances quite shocking for the alleged period of time that this occurred,” said the judge. “Being in a protected part of the airport with a fake ID badge, supposedly, based on the need for airports to be absolutely safe so that people feel safe to travel, I think these alleged actions make it a danger to the community .