The Longmont woman accused of grabbing a Transportation Security Administration agent was abducted when she was 7, contributing to a fear of being touched by strangers, she told KGNU radio station in Boulder.
Yukari Miyamae, 61, was arrested on suspicion of grabbing a female agent’s breast at a security gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport during a confrontation July 14.
Miyamae told KGNU, where she volunteers as a DJ, that she does not like being touched by strangers, the result of being abducted for several hours when she was a child living in Japan.
“I have a very strong sense of endangerment. I have a high alert system for my safety,” Miyamae said in the interview. “People don’t usually come near me that close.”
A tall female TSA agent went up to the 5-foot-tall Miyamae and was about to pat her down when, Miyamae said, she reached out and tried to stop her and accidentally touched the agent’s breast.
“It was an instinctual moment — I just wanted to keep my space, my personal space from this oppressive presence,” she said.
For more on this story go to the
