Woman on Motorized Suitcase Sparks Police Chase Inside Florida Airport
An airline employee refused to let her board the plane, which triggered the episode.
A Florida woman was recently arrested at Orlando International Airport after allegedly having a bit too much to drink, causing a disturbance at the gate, and evading police on a motorized suitcase, News 6 Orlando reports. The woman, aged 32, was reportedly not allowed to board her flight home after a gate attendant claimed she did not want somebody so intoxicated on the flight. After a police officer arrived and attempted to calm things down, the woman flipped the officer the finger, called him a number of expletives, and fled the scene on her suitcase.
The officer, surprised at the speed of the motorized luggage, gave pursuit on a bicycle, creating quite a scene. The woman was later apprehended and arrested after resisting a while longer.
Where the woman was headed is unclear, but she claimed to have had two drinks after her flight home was delayed for a few hours. The officer, Andrew Mamone, noted that she had glassy eyes and trouble standing. She denied being too intoxicated to fly, however. Officer Mamone attempted to defuse the situation lightheartedly following the gate attendant's refusal to board her onto the plane, but that didn't go well. The ensuing chase lasted for several minutes, during which time the woman allegedly spat on him more than once.
Eventually, the officer was able to get her back behind the airport's security checkpoint, where she was apprehended. According to the OPD, the would-be passenger continued to cause trouble in the patrol vehicle, ripping apart its headliner and allegedly defecating in the back seat.
The suitcase the woman used to evade police in the airport appears to be a Modobag, a $1,495 piece of luggage with a 150-watt electric motor—that's about one-fifth of a horsepower. Capable of charging to max capacity in two hours, it can travel a distance of up to six miles and has a top speed of seven miles per hour. It's not what anyone would call wildly quick, but it's certainly fast enough to tire out a pursuing police officer.
Records obtained by News 6 Orlando allegedly state the woman was released from Orange County jail on a $13,500 bond following the incident.
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