A Florida woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly broke into a U.S. Coast Guard installation, stole a tricycle, and drove it onto the active taxiway of the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrested the woman last week after she allegedly scaled the fence of U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, stole a tricycle, then rode past no trespassing signs at Terminal A of the busy airport before being noticed by employees watching surveillance footage, according to a report from the Tampa Bay Times.
The woman, who according to a Coast Guard spokesperson allegedly first tried to gain access to one of their aircraft, eventually ditched the tricycle and attempted to board an Allegiant Airline flight bound for Argentina, but was confronted by airline employees.
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An Allegiant Airbus A319 at McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas. (Robert Smith/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The woman, who was not named in the report, now faces felony charges of trespassing onto an operational area of an airport and grand theft.
According to the Coast Guard spokesperson, the installation uses tricycles as well as golf carts and Bobcats to transport tools and equipment around the facility.
Clearwater is the Coast Guard’s busiest and largest air station in the world, the service said, and is housed on the 2,000-acre St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, which was initially a military flight-training base.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter lands at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans. (U.S. Navy)
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“The airport maintains safety standards and all incursion incidents undergo an investigation by the TSA,” an airport spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times following the incident.
