by Donald Wood
Last updated: 10:53 AM ET, Mon April 13, 2020
A woman was arrested at a New Orleans airport after allegedly entering the facility completely naked and asking to buy a plane ticket.
According to NOLA.com, 27-year-old Mariel Vergara from Pueblo, Colorado, walked into Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans on April 4 and approached the Spirit Airlines counter without any clothes on.
Spirit staff members informed Vergara she would not be permitted to board a plane naked, but she refused to leave the facility. Police were called to the scene, but Vergara had put a dress on by the time officers arrived.
Authorities from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said Vergara was not wearing underwear and was exposing herself, which violated public decency laws. Following her arrest, police charged her with obscenity, resisting an officer, battery of a police officer, simple battery and remaining in the airport after being forbidden.
During a court hearing on April 9, charges against Vergara were reduced to resisting police and battery of an officer.
In March, Transportation Security Administration officers working at Logan International Airport in Boston discovered a 9mm handgun loaded with five bullets inside the bag of a man from Alabama.
Last year, a record-breaking total of 4,432 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the United States. The five-percent increase resulted in an average of 12.1 firearms found each day, with 87 percent of them being loaded.
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