Nine-Year-Old Breaches Airport Security

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OK, so hes more capable and perhaps a little more driven than your average nine-year-old (or 39-year-old for that matter), but the fact remains that Samaj Booker got through several layers of security and came within one flight of reaching his destination of Dallas from his starting point at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last week. According to an AFP report, Lieutenant David Guttu of the police department in Bookers new hometown of Lakewood, Wash., described the four-foot-nine, 90-pound Booker as “pretty dedicated, highly motivated and focused” to make it back to Dallas, where his family had moved from a few months before. The boy managed to convince Southwest Airlines agents that he belonged on a plane to Phoenix, and was allowed to change planes for a flight to San Antonio, where suspicious agents finally put a stop to his trip. He got past the agents at Sea-Tac by convincing them he was 12 and that his mother was already on board the flight. Since the information matched a ticketless reservation in the system, he was allowed to board. His identity went unchecked in Phoenix where he walked onto another Southwest aircraft without a ticket for the flight to San Antonio. When he tried to make the final connection to Dallas, agents discovered he didnt belong there and called police. It wasnt his first attempt to get back to Dallas. The day before the flight, Lakewood police said he led officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen car, dodging a spike belt and finally stopping when the car had mechanical problems. With his grown-up abilities will likely come grown-up consequences. Authorities are contemplating a list of federal charges against the boy.

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