MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., has a serial trespasser.
Authorities say a homeless woman has sneaked onto the base four times in eight months, sometimes staying for several days at a time, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The trouble apparently began in October, when a retired Air Force officer who docks his boat at a MacDill marina found a woman on his boat, the paper reported. She had in her hands the boat’s ignition keys. When the retired officer asked her who had given her permission to be aboard, she allegedly told him she had just come from the Pentagon and had the right to be on all the boats.
The woman jumped overboard when he tried to detain her. A six-hour search by base security and Tampa police using dogs and an air unit ensued. Still, the woman remained elusive until somebody reported seeing a drenched woman at a base restaurant. She was given a trespass warning and told not to return the base.
A month later, she was seen again, this time in a MacDill fitness center. She presented to security officers what they said was a stolen military ID. Then she showed them how she used an upside down trashcan as a ladder, climbing over the wall from a softball field outside the base, according to the newspaper. This time, she was given a citation for trespassing.
But a security officer spotted her for a third time on Dec. 17, hiding behind a vehicle on base. She was cited again – after a brief foot chase.
The woman was apparently back before the month was out. She was found on base again Jan. 4 and told officers she’d been living on a boat on a trailer in the base’s camping area.
Suzanne M. Jensen, 50, has been charged with four counts of trespassing and possession of a stolen military ID.