Guarding Mar-a-Lago: The many bizarre moments that led to arrests

What would Mar-a-Lago be without drama?

Long before the FBI’s search this week at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, authorities have been a fixture there: They’ve often been summoned to detain people accused of trespassing and other violations.

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Over the past five years, there have been complaints of drivers whizzing past gates, people crossing the line in their attempts to meet Trump, as well as Chinese nationals accused of trespassing.

Here’s a look at just some of the encounters that have drawn headlines in recent years.

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[ RELATED: Ron DeSantis, GOP slam FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ]

In 2020, an opera singer was accused of plowing through two security barricades outside Mar-a-Lago in a rented Jeep. Secret Service and Sheriff’s deputies jumped out of her way just in time as she slammed through the second barricade, and that’s when they opened fire. There were no injuries.

On Jan. 18, the woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The 32-year-old appeared by Zoom from her home state of Connecticut.

On Thanksgiving weekend 2018, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison student accessed Mar-a-Lago by mingling with a group that was entering. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and was eventually sentenced by a federal judge in Florida to one year probation and a $25 fine.

CNN reported he entered Mar-a-Lago through a tunnel and remained at the resort until he was discovered by Secret Service agents. At the time, he was staying with family at a “neighboring beachfront property.”

In 2017, a few hours before Trump took the oath of office in Washington D.C., a woman smeared bananas on cars parked at Mar-a-Lago.

The intruder also took balloons from inside Trump’s historic estate and left them in the bushes, according to police. She was arrested on a trespassing charge.

Two Chinese nationals were arrested on trespassing charges in 2019.

Yujing Zhang lied to security and was able to get inside Mar-a-Lago. She was found guilty of trespassing and lying to the Secret Service. That year, she was sentenced to eight months in prison, and then deportation upon her release.

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Federal agents were concerned that Zhang was carrying two passports, four cellphones, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive, but she was not charged with espionage. Zhang never got close to Trump, who was playing golf.

Also that year, Lu Jing was charged with loitering and prowling when she was spotted taking photos at Mar-a-Lago and refused to leave. Trump and his family were not at the club at the time.

A panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, ruled in 2021 that Jing should be acquitted of the charge of resisting an officer without violence.

Lu Jing appears in court on Feb. 14, 2020, where she was sentenced to six months in jail for resisting arrest. (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post)

In August 2020, three teenagers fleeing police while carrying a semiautomatic gun in a backpack jumped a wall at Mar-a-Lago but police did not believe they knew where they were. A helicopter and police dog were used to help find them.

The 15-year-old boys were arrested shortly after they entered the grounds of the resort and dumped the backpack, which contained a mini AK-47 with a loaded 14-round magazine. They had been fleeing police 2 miles north of the resort.

In 2017 in a notable airspace violation, two Air Force F-15s hit supersonic speeds to intercept an aircraft that came too close to the house, causing a sonic boom that residents heard from Broward to Palm Beach counties.

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“I thought it was an actual bomb,” said Coral Springs’ mayor at the time. “The house shook; you felt it vibrate.”

A year later, two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a private plane that veered into restricted airspace. The fighter jets based at Homestead Air Reserve Station intercepted the plane and escorted it to the North Palm Beach County Airport near Palm Beach Gardens.

Pilots violating air restrictions are questioned by Secret Service and law enforcement. The Federal Aviation Administration determines if pilots flying into restricted airspace face civil penalties or criminal charges.

In 2018, authorities said a woman drove onto President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and parked in front of the club’s security office.

An arrest report said she wasn’t able to speak clearly and nodded off when they questioned her. Police said the woman told an officer she would punch him, refused to answer questions and couldn’t remember the passcode for her phone.

Before two Canadians were arrested and charged with trespassing at Mar-a-Lago, police had to break the windows of the pickup they were in.

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In 2020, the pair were initially found taking pictures outside their brown Ford F-350 on the resort’s property. The two were ordered to leave, which they did, but then came back. They were ordered out of the truck, refused, so police used their batons to smash the driver and passenger windows.

There have been minor incidents which were resolved without too much fanfare.

They include a veteran struggling with mental health issues who tried to enter the estate through a side entrance on Southern Boulevard in 2020, yelling that he wanted something.

And there was a man who showed up in military fatigues to deliver a message “about the war” to the commander in chief.

And an employee drove into a checkpoint and then was caught spraying cologne in an attempt to cover the smell of marijuana in his car. Deputies found a small bag of marijuana and issued the man a notice to appear in court.

He asked for his marijuana back, but deputies refused.

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Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2008. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash