YULEE, Fla. – A suspected "serial stowaway" is expected to face a judge Tuesday morning after Nassau County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 63-year-old woman on charges of fraud/impersonation, defrauding an innkeeper and trespassing.
Marilyn Jean Hartman was found staying at the Omni Resort Amelia Island Plantation without authorization, deputies said.
On Sunday, Hartman used a false name to to obtain transportation from the Jacksonville International Airport to the Omni AIP and checked in under another person's name, according to deputies.
She was then shown to a villa. When the real person checked in to the resort later that day, Hartman was contacted and asked to come back to the front desk because of an error in booking, but she disappeared.
Monday, Hartman was found by Omni security staying in a room that was being renovated. She was arrested and booked into the Nassau County Jail.
Hartman has been arrested numerous times across the United States for trying to sneak on airplanes and staying at locations without authorization. News4jax tracked down her mugshots from all over the country, six of them were taken in the past year.
We looked up her history and here are some of incidents she's been involved in:
- February of 2014 she was sentenced to 18 months of probation after trying to board three separate flights from San Francisco to Hawaii.
- March of 2014 she was arrested twice for hanging out in the San Francisco airport after she was banned from being there.
- August 2014 arrested for getting thru security snd board if a flight from Mineta San Jose international airport to LAX.
- She was arrested again in August at Phoenix sky harbor international airport for trespassing.
- Then Monday, she was arrested in Nassau County where police say she boarded a flight without a ticket from Minnesota to Jacksonville before checking into the Omni under another woman's name.
Hartman spoke to KCBS, a news station in California last August and she promised never to do it again.
"It was stupid and it's something I do not want to repeat. It was clearly wrong on my part and I certainly do not want to do it again because I certainly don't want to do any jail time," said Hartman.
KCBS said Hartman is a retired secretary who is now homeless. Last year she told NBC News that she suffers from "whistle blower trauma syndrome" and was forced from her home by the F.B.I., leaving her homeless.
"Obviously they'll be on watch for me so I wouldn't dare attempt this again. I don't want to be that position. I want to go with a paid ticket," said Hartman.
News4Jax spoke with Crime and Safety Analyst Gil Smith about how she's sneaking on flights and checking into hotels without proper identification.
Gil said it's highly improbable she got on a flight to Jacksonville under a false identity because of intense TSA security screenings since 9/11. But at a hotel, Smith said she must have found a weakness in security.
"As far as checking into hotel, she did that somehow she got into system found out who was staying and was able to say she was this woman. Most hotels you need to show ID, credit card show that you are that person with the reservation. For hotel stay, somehow she was able to breach that security again," he said.
In another incident, she told investigators she had cancer and was trying to live out the remainder of her days in a warm place like Hawaii.
There is no information as to what brought Hartman to the area. She is being held in the Nassau County jail on multiple charges including fraud, impersonation and trespassing. She is expected to face a judge during her first appearance Tuesday morning.