Stupid is as stupid does

Rico says he's all for kissing your ladyfriend good-bye but, hey, let's be smart about it. Michael Wilson has an article in The New York Times about a guy who wasn't:

Theirs was a whirlwind New York City Christmas, but while true love is timeless, vacations are not. Sadly, it came time for one of the lovebirds to fly home to California, and the other, Haisong Jiang— love-struck as if Cupid hit him not with an arrow, but with a two-by-four to the head— saw his beloved to the security line at Newark Liberty International Airport.One thing led to another, and they kissed. And whatever else that kiss sealed, it certainly included his fate: to ladle out meals at some soup kitchen to be determined as a way toward working off 100 hours of community service for his crime that afternoon in January.
“At that moment, I’m very excited with my girlfriend, and I didn’t think too much,” Mr. Jiang, 28, said in his first interview since causing the six-hour shutdown at the airport and the five-day manhunt that followed. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble at the airport.”
Mr. Jiang walked past a Terminal C exit on 3 January to see his girlfriend to her departure gate, prompting an evacuation of the terminal on one of its busiest days. About 200 flights were delayed or canceled, and thousands of passengers had to be screened all over again as officials looked for a suspect who was not only oblivious, but also long gone. He was tracked down and arrested on 8 January.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty in Newark Municipal Court to the charge of defiant trespass and, besides community service, he must pay a $500 fine and $158 in costs and fees. He addressed the acting chief judge, Richard E. A. Nunes, with a statement in Chinese that was translated by an interpreter. In an agreement between prosecutors and Mr. Jiang’s lawyer, Eric B. Bruce, Mr. Jiang will work off his punishment in community service.
For two months, Mr. Jiang has been mostly known as the grainy figure seen ducking under a security rope after a Transportation Security Administration officer left his post. On Tuesday, he shared his version of events that afternoon and in the days that followed.
A native of China, he moved to the United States in 2004 to study, and met his girlfriend about a year ago at Rutgers University. She has since moved to California. He said little about her except that she is also Chinese and 26, and that they were still very much an item. The lovebirds did the town over the Christmas holidays: shopping in SoHo, visiting the tree at Rockefeller Center, celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square— the works. On 3 January, he watched her pass through security, but he wanted to spend more time with her. When he noticed the officer leave his post, he saw his chance, he said.
“I saw her at the exit,” he said in nearly fluent English. “At that moment, I’m very excited for her. I didn’t realize the consequences.” He slipped under the rope and kissed her and, arm in arm, walked her to her Continental Airlines gate and saw her onto the jetway. “And immediately I left,” he said. There was no commotion in the terminal when he drove away to his home in Piscataway, he said.
He does not spend much time following the news, he said; he is working to earn his doctorate degree in the field of biology, seeking a cure for eye ailments like glaucoma and cataracts. So it was two days before he heard about the evacuation at the airport. He was unfazed. “I only know it’s maybe caused by a camera problem,” he said. “I didn’t know it was me.” Three days passed. “Friday, the police found me,” he said. He was at the gym when his roommate called to say two police officers were at their home. Reality finally dawned on the budding scientist: “It’s not right to enter the airport. Immediately I know the police want to ask me this thing.”
They showed him a picture from the video and took him to a police station, where he told his story, he said. “I say, ‘I just want to spend more time with my girlfriend.’”
When the officers released him that night, his roommate said their front lawn had become something of a circus. “They tell me many media people were at my house,” he said. Rattled, he stayed with a friend. He called his girlfriend right away. “She was worried about me,” he said.
He quickly came to realize the high cost, in hours of people’s lives, that his actions brought. “I feel guilty about this,” he said. “I’m trying to apologize for any inconvenience caused by my mistake. It’s a big mistake.” His actions prompted some to suggest that Mr. Jiang should be deported or face federal charges. “I never face this situation before; I try to do my best to fix the problem,” Mr. Jiang went on, by getting a lawyer and admitting his mistake.
He does not type his name into search engines: the sheer number of hits is overwhelming.
He anticipates serving half of his community service in a soup kitchen— “I like to cook”— and the other half in a hospital or some sort of nonprofit agency. He flew to California without incident for Valentine’s Day. He and his girlfriend talk for 2,000 minutes a month, he said, mostly late at night. He plans on moving to California to be with her and work in a laboratory after completing his degree in May or June. She has no plans to return to New York. Her Christmas visit, despite its frightening postscript, still brings a smile to Mr. Jiang’s face. “We had a lot of fun in those days,” he said.

Rico says 'defiant trespass'? Geez, learn something new every day...