Win the fight before it begins. In the baggage claim area at JFK, I surveyed my environment and scanned for lone males with no baggage lingering. With the right tools and awareness, it doesn’t take much for someone to ping your radar. As you know, in an airport there are a lot of people, too many combinations of faces to remember them all. In OCONUS counter surveillance operations, I was taught to associate people with the shoes they wear, because shoes are harder to change than other articles of clothing. In a CONUS airport, I’m not too concerned with trained clandestine operatives, only untrained goons. They aren’t trained in countering counter surveillance, so they likely won’t be changing their clothes. With that being said, when my intuition pinged a specific individual, I made my first chess move. Rather than memorize his shoes, I locked in on his dark blue sweatpants with 2 white stripes going down the leg, bright blue fitted baseball hat and no bag. I let my wife know a brief who, what and where. Using the acronym CLIP, I identified my shark.
C for Cover. As depicted in the image, he was standing in the corner directly next to the entrance of the air cart we were taking to the ride share pickup location for our uber, with a full view of the cart. Watching and waiting.
L for Loitering. I initially saw him at the baggage claim by himself wandering, appearing to look busy on his phone, then I saw him again inside the air cart. Next chess move. I took my picture of him discreetly, appearing from his position I was taking a picture of my wife. He walked out at the next stop and what do you know? He walks back into the air cart from a different door and repositioned himself directly next to us in the corner along the same wall we were when I snapped that photo. Odd behavior, eh? Looks like he’s playing the game. Counter his move. For context through the lens of my photo, he was now to our right. Before he got to double arm’s length away from us, I told her “Let’s go to the other side” to increase our distance and reactionary gap. Moving forward I made sure at all times I was between our shark and my VIP.
I for Interest. Players are moving on the board. I made rough eye contact with him for 2 beats before he relocated to let him know that I see him, and to plant a seed of doubt, perhaps fear in his heart that I would hurt him if he tried us. Sharks don’t want to be hurt, so they will choose easy, distracted, and soft targets. Because I knew that he knew that I was aware of him, he played an interest in us. I let my wife know in Portuguese (so he wouldn’t read my lips) to stop looking at him so it doesn’t breed an interaction. I wanted a seed planted, and that’s it. In my periphery and reflections, I could see he continued to look directly at us or in our direction. This would’ve been the time for me to throw on my sunglasses so I could directly stare at him in the corner of my eye without him seeing my eyes, but they were tucked away in a bag. Lesson for the future.
P for Patterns, as aforementioned I saw him loitering at baggage claim and in the air cart, then he repositioned to an attempted arm’s length away from us. Same individual, two different locations, always trust the pattern.
When I first identified the shark, I made sure that I staged my hips at all times facing his direction. Weapons facing threat. At distance, and with a dozen or more people between us, there was no threat other than his presence in the same cart as us. No immediate exit. Given unstable terrain, kicks and takedowns would be hard to accomplish but I didn’t want to count them completely out. If in the moment the range was appropriate, I could easily grab a bar for a second point of contact as I drove an oblique kick through his patella. Not taking him down wasn’t an option despite the unstable movement of the air cart. I was with a VIP in a closed environment where we couldn’t simply take off running. My ultimate objective was to bring him chest to ground and cuff him behind the back with my 550 paracord improvised flex cuffs which are always worn on my right wrist. Could I hold him in a control position for a few minutes without cuffing? Sure, but with a VIP I’m not taking any chances at losing a dominant position. Once the doors opened and we had an out, we’d take it.
My wife asked me what I believed his intention was and one could never know for certain but appropriate predictions are based on probabilities. Given he was at the airport, which is globally known as a human trafficking hub for criminals, and he was on an air cart heading to an Uber/Lyft/rideshare pickup location, I told her I believe he is coordinating with other goon(s) and has a vehicle staged there for a snatch and grab operation. If he wanted to simply pick pocket people, he likely would’ve been more active walking around in the cart. To me it seemed like he was looking for a target.
Tools? I made a note to myself to never leave baggage claim without my fixed blade again. Learn from your mistakes. Shortly after I snapped a picture of the shark and prior to him relocating I decided I needed a tool. I discreetly removed my EDC Fenix PD35R 1700 lumen flashlight from my right pant pocket and bungeed it to my right hand inside my right jacket pocket. My thumb was staged on the strobe button, careful not to accidentally discharge it and giveaway the hidden tool. Surprise, speed, violence of action. I knew had he approached us and escalated his behavior from loitering to any verbal/physical contact or threatening preemptive posturing, I was to bleach him in the eyes with the strobe as I struck him with a hammer fist in the orbital and maxilla with the tip of my light and go into head control to a takedown if a limb wasn’t available for me to access post ballistics.
He got off at the next stop and we never saw him again. Students ask me all the time, “Have you ever used any of these techniques in the real world?” All the time. Win the pre-event, and never have to survive the event itself. The technique was cognitive, not physical.
As we approached our Uber a lone male was in the driver’s seat of a blacked-out Escalade and kindly said, “need a ride?” Before he even finished his sentence I said “No.” Louder than you typically would with a stranger, not yelling just firm enough with direct eye contact screaming I will fuck you up. Was this his ally? I’ll never know and don’t care to.
Sharks will always be in the water. It’s our shared unfortunate reality every time we step out of our nests and navigate the animal kingdom. Don’t be a soft target and always be willing to go the entire way.
Ed Petrillo,
Krav Maga Instructor
