(NewsNation) — A single mom traveling on a Southwest Airlines flight to Ohio said she’s traumatized after she was stopped by airport police for allegedly human trafficking her 4-year-old son.
Bridgetta Tomarchio said she was traveling to the Cincinnati area with her son to visit his father. It’s a trip the two make often to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, normally without incident, she told WXIX.
However, during this recent trip, Tomarchio said police stopped her about allegations from the Southwest flight’s pilot before she could finish purchasing a rental car.
“I was about to hand them my credit card and then they walk in and they say, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, we have reason to believe that this child isn’t your child and that your child trafficking him,'” Tomarchio recalled. “I look around and I’m like, I’m sorry, me? And they’re like, yes, you we have reason that this isn’t your child, there was suspicious activity, and the Southwest Airlines pilot had called it in.”
Tomarchio said she asked the police, “What did I even do?” She said they responded and stated they didn’t know, but she needed to show proof that her son was her child. She said officers asked for a birth certificate or identification of her son.
“I found two insurance cards, different ones with my name and my son’s name on it, which by the way, are different last names,” Tomarchio said. “There was a museum card that had his father’s name on it along with mine. So, I was like, look, this is his dad, it matches his dad’s name.”
Tomarchio said she initially gave officers their plane tickets, and the officers responded, “Oh, we didn’t know he had a ticket.”
She added her son was sleeping the entire time, and she told the officers that they could wake him to speak with him.
Tomarchio said she flew home Wednesday and was so “terrified” that she called the manager of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to walk her to her gate because she was afraid a similar incident could happen again. Additionally, she met the flight crew.
“It made me feel better on that flight and then when I got to my layover, I did the same thing. I mean, it’s embarrassing. It’s like I had to sit here and tell the story to them all over again,” she said.
Tomarchio said she never received an explanation for why the pilot reported her.
“I have no idea why I was singled out. I do feel like I was profiled, singled out, for some reason, I have no idea why that is; I would love to know,” she said.
She said she’s a Southwest Rapid Reward member and has a companion pass for her son and if employees asked for her ticket or pulled up her account, they would have seen that information.
NewsNation sent a request to Southwest Airlines for comment but has not heard back.
