Before You Start Reading
Here are some sample chapters of How To Be Your Own Bodyguard for your perusal. Check back from time to time as I plan to change them up every now and then.
FIGHTING FIT
A pandemic has struck us since writing the 2nd edition of How To Be Your Own Bodyguard. One of the things that we’ve discovered is that people in shape are harder to kill. Yes, some of them got Covid-19, but it’s no secret that most of the fatalities came from the obese, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions. In fact, the CDC has since said, vaccinate or not; if you have comorbidities and you get Covid, you’re in big trouble.
If we’re honest with ourselves, our self-protection plan should go beyond hardening our vehicles, houses, and game and include our physical condition. I’ve mentioned it before in the book. Sadly, too many morbidly obese guys are going to tactical shooting schools concerned about an enemy they’re not very likely to come across when they should be worried about the real killer, i.e., heart attacks.
In our chapter on Active Killer Events, we talk about the government’s plan to Run, Hide and Fight. Look around you. Over half of the country is obese. Yes, America, congratulations. We now lead the world in obesity. Aren’t we awesome? Who are we kidding? How many of them could run full speed from their office to the parking lot? How many of them could do it carrying a wounded colleague? How many of them could fight a gunman? Perhaps the government should change its slogan to “Hide, Fatty, Hide.”
There are other reasons to incorporate a physical training regime. For example, being fit has been proven to lower our anxiety and stress levels, which are two of the biggest killers in the world. That means not only will your overall health be better, but in the event of a confrontation or life-threatening event, you will cope better than someone who’s out of shape.
Look, I’m not for one minute advocating you join the local cross-fit gym, start a Keto diet, and look to run a marathon by year’s end but come on. Most of us could do better. Think of it from a mission standpoint, much like fire departments, police departments, and the military do. So what do you think, if you’re looking at your training from a self-protection viewpoint, should you be capable of?
Everyone will be different depending on your age, where you live, whether you have a family or kids that you have to be concerned about, and whether you work from home or in a high-rise downtown.
Here are some suggestions, though, to give you something to mull over. First, there has to be a cardio component. Whether that’s being able to run 100 yards all out without dying or building up a base level of cardio by being able to jog non-stop for 3 miles, cardio is king for all emergency services personnel.
Physical strength is another prime requirement. You might have to:
- push a dumpster to get over a fence
- jump up and grab a fire escape ladder
- pull yourself up over a wall or into a window to climb through it
- fight off someone who outweighs you by fifty pounds or more
- grab your kid and run with them
- pick up and drag a wounded colleague
- haul furniture around your office to deny entry
Agility would also be on my list. Can you scale a chain-link fence? Climb from one balcony to another in a hotel fire, for example? Jump from a one-story balcony and land on the ground without breaking anything? Do you know how to climb a rope?
Last, I’d be looking at your diet if you were out of shape. Every bodybuilder knows abs are made in the kitchen and have very little to do with sit-ups, crunches, and the gym. Intermittent fasting is an easy way to drop weight and improve your blood work. It doesn’t require fancy diets, depriving yourself of your favorite food, or any draconian measures at all. All you need to do is eat in an eight-hour window instead of the usual sixteen.
All of the above will require a little discipline, though, and that’s not a bad thing to exercise, either. Self-discipline is like a muscle in that when you exercise it, it gets stronger. And self-discipline, willpower, and internal fortitude are all excellent additions to your defensive toolbox.
Look at how the SEALs, Delta, and the SAS train. They don’t do it because it’s fun. They do it because they know those attributes are critical attributes for any warrior dealing with non-consensual violence at some point. So maybe you can take a page out of their playbook.
The focus of this book isn’t getting you in shape, and there are literally thousands of options out there for how to do that, but here would be my rough guideline.
- Don’t carry more than 10 lbs of excess body weight.
- Be capable of running a mile without stopping.
- 25 Good pushups.
- Three good chin-ups.
- Hike 5 miles once a month with a 30lb backpack.
- Take the stairs occasionally.
- Park further away when viable and walk a little further.
If you’re already in good shape or want to take this seriously and challenge yourself, then go for high-intensity interval training like Tabata drills. Consider also participating in things like Go Ruck events or Spartan races that incorporate obstacles. Those are far more likely to replicate the kind of situation you’ll find yourself in during an emergency, unlike running on an elliptical machine or riding a stationary bike would.
Remember that none of it will kill you, but it might make you harder to kill.
CHAPTER 12
FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZING, FRONTING & FOLDING
If you listen to any discussion about fighting, combat, or survival long enough, you will hear the term “fight or flight” bandied about. It’s become so popular that a lot of websites and dictionaries talk exclusively about the “fight or flight response,” choosing to ignore the third and very real response of freezing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also omit another two ubiquitous responses, which are fronting and folding.
Let’s go over all five and learn about the pros and cons of each. We may as well knock out the ubiquitous “fight or flight response” first, as that’s the one that appears to be the most popular.
Fight or Flight
We’ve touched on this a bit under the “Adrenalin” section, but let’s go over the science of it all first. The brain is responsible for triggering the fear response, and it is entirely unconscious, which is why, if anyone ever tries to tell you they’re not afraid, is probably lying or crazy. When we hear something that goes bump in the night, the brain sends out the sensory data – in this case, the noise – to an area called the thalamus. At this point, the thalamus doesn’t know if the data it’s receiving is dangerous or not, as it could have been the cat chasing a mouse or maybe it’s the onset of a home invasion. Because it’s far more dangerous to assume it’s the cat and have it turn out to be a threat than vice versa, the thalamus sends the sensory input along to the amygdala, which then acts to protect you. It sends information further along the chain to the hypothalamus, which is what triggers the fight, flight or freeze response. (I would submit these 1st three are hard-wired into us, whereas the latter two are learned at an early age.)
The hypothalamus does this by triggering two separate parts of your body. One is the sympathetic nervous system which uses nerve pathways to initiate reactions in the body, and the other is the adrenal-cortical system which uses the bloodstream.
The former, the sympathetic nervous system, causes the body to speed up, tense, and become hyper-alert. At the same time, the adrenal-cortical system is releasing adrenalin into the system, as we mentioned in the section on adrenalin. A slew of different hormones and chemicals flood your body and get you ready for surviving combat and other life-threatening situations.
These reactions, as I mentioned in the section on Adrenalin, are, for the most part, a good thing. After all, fear and these responses are what have kept us, as a species, alive for all these years. If we didn’t fear things, we’d walk off buildings, into traffic, swim in piranha and shark-infested water, and drive 150 mph without seat belts, etc. It only becomes a problem when it overwhelms you and causes you to freeze up.
Freezing
Standing stock still is a very viable survival tactic in the wild because most predatory animals hunt on sight and detect movement very easily. By remaining perfectly still they may look right at you and not see you. We’re trained to do it in the military. If a flare goes off, running for cover is the worst thing you can do, as the rapid movement is so readily identifiable. Instead, we freeze. It is the same thing on patrol. The scout out ahead hears something suspicious and immediately holds his hand up, indicating that everyone in the unit should suddenly freeze in place. We’ll stand like that until it’s determined that it’s safe to continue moving again.
When it’s not so good is if someone is hurtling towards you, intending to high-five you in the face with a chair, and you stand there frozen in place until you get hit. Very often, this is simply because of a lack of experience and/or training. Your brain sees the threat and is rapidly running through its memory banks to try and come up with a matching scenario so it knows what to do. While it’s doing this and failing, you’re standing there waiting for instructions that aren’t coming.
Training, and loads of it, is the best remedy for this problem, along with positive self-talk and something called imagery rehearsal which we’ll get to later in this chapter.
While perhaps not hardwired, the next two responses are very real reactions to imminent conflict.
Fronting
This is basically a bluff. You’ll see the person puffing his chest up, sticking his chin out, and screaming, which is similar to a pufferfish blowing up, a dog’s hackles, and a myriad of other animals that try to make themselves look intimidating and fiercer than they really are. They do so in the hopes the predator will back down and leave them alone.
Folding
As in the game of Poker, this is giving in. In the real world, unlike the card game, this would mean complying with the bad guy’s demands. It’s not one of the big three, i.e., Flight, Fight, or Freeze, but it’s still a very real response by some people in the face of conflict. Like its counterpart, Fronting it’s done in the hope the bad guy will leave them alone because they’re putting up no resistance and thus not inflaming the situation nor antagonizing the aggressor(s). This was the age-old advice on how to respond to a rapist for many years, and many police departments even pushed this drivel. “Fighting back will only make him mad, don’t resist, give them what they want, and they’ll be on their way.” (Funny, I’ve never found a male police officer in twenty-six countries that would be willing to follow that advice should the shoe be on the other foot.)
The problem with folding is that it’s no guarantee (like fronting) that it’s going to work. In the case of rape, it’s been found that women who fight back, whether successful in their defense or not, recover much faster psychologically and stand a better chance of surviving altogether. In the case of a mugging, you were pretty much guaranteed years ago that if you handed your stuff over, you’d be left alone. Not anymore. We’re seeing more and more cases where, after complying, the victim is beaten or killed anyway.
So, as promised, some discussion about positive self-talk as a method of overriding paralyzing fear.
Positive self-talk is what it sounds like, and it’s been validated by the scientific community that you do end up acting the way you think you will. In other words, your subconscious will shape your behavior in line with your expectations.
One of the best of these I’ve seen and that I use all the time comes from Dennis Martin of CQB Services in the UK, and it goes like this…
I WILL DO
WHATEVER IT TAKES
TO WIN THE FIGHT
I MAY BE HIT
I MAY BE CUT
I MAY GO DOWN
I MAY FEEL PAIN
I MAY FEEL FEAR
BUT I WILL TURN PAIN INTO POWER
AND I WILL TURN FEAR INTO AGGRESSION
I WILL KEEP FIGHTING…
AS LONG AS I HAVE BREATH IN MY BODY
AND BLOOD IN MY VEINS…
AND I WILL WIN!!!
BECAUSE I WILL DO…
WHATEVER IT TAKES…
TO WIN THE FIGHT
I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN THE FIGHT!!!
Finally, we’ll finish this section with something called “Imagery Rehearsal” or “Chair Flying,” as it’s known in the Air Force. What it boils down to is that your subconscious can’t differentiate between what is real and what is imagined. Your conscious mind can, of course, but your subconscious most certainly cannot.
The easiest way to get that point across is to mention nightmares. Most people have had one at some point in their lives and remember waking up with their heart beating rapidly, panting, and in a cold sweat, and yet why? Clearly, there was no real threat, and yet, you awaken with the physical manifestations as if there was, and all this is because, as far as your subconscious mind was concerned, it was real.
We can take that and use it to our advantage. By taking moments to run through possible scenarios in our mind and see ourselves winning them and thwarting the adversary, we are reinforcing our subconscious, or programming it if you will, to perform better under the stress of a real attack.
Remember, in a real situation, because of our physiology, analytical thought will all but disappear, and you’ll be operating on auto-pilot. If the subconscious has been programmed correctly, then it will perform accordingly.
In flying circles, it’s called Chair Flying and begins with a pilot putting on his uniform, sitting in a chair, placing a stick between his legs to represent the joystick, and then going through the motions. The top-flight aerobatic teams use it before flying, top pistol shots spend the bulk of their time on dry-firing drills, and athletes all use this method to prepare mentally for the physical challenges they’re about to face.
The beauty of it is that you can do it anywhere, anytime, and in any sort of situation. Look at it as if it’s your own virtual reality simulator. One key to making it most effective is to involve as many of your senses as you can. In other words, don’t just close your eyes and see yourself in a situation, as that’s only going to invoke one sense. Instead, close your eyes, see the bad guy(s), listen to what they’re saying, smell them, taste the coppery taste of fear in your mouth, feel your fists clench and the trickle of sweat on your lower back, etc. The more senses you can invoke, the more effective this method of preparation will be.
CHAPTER 15
STEPS TO TAKE
Ok, now that we’ve got some of the theory out of the way, let’s get stuck into the practical side of things. We’re going to begin with, the soft skills, and those are the techniques that involve everything we do other than actually fighting somebody else. Looking at a group of guys, for example, walking down the street towards you, who make you feel uneasy and cause you to cross the road to the other side, is practicing soft skills.
Assessment Time
The first step in our plan is to develop the habit of gathering intelligence. Remember General Norman Schwarzkopf, aka “Stormin’ Norman” in Desert Storm? He spent weeks before committing to action by having Special Forces behind enemy lines gathering intelligence. At the same time, this information was coming in, so was imagery from overhead U.S. satellites. This enabled the General to formulate a plan that would maximize his troops, take advantage of enemy weaknesses and win in the shortest time possible with minimum casualties. The old adage from the military, i.e., “that time spent gathering intelligence is seldom wasted,” proved to be true then, just as it’s true now.
So, how do we do this in the civilian world? Obviously, we don’t have satellites at our disposal and/or compliments of SF soldiers to deploy. It’s simple, really. We do it by taking five to ten seconds when exiting a building (the mall, for example) or your home to pause, survey your surroundings, and take in information. The best way to do this is to break the area you’re looking at into a foreground, middle ground, and background. Begin by looking at the foreground and do it from right to left and not left to right. Why? We read from left to right, and so, as a result, we tend to skim over minor details when looking in that direction. By forcing ourselves to look from the right to the left, we tend to take in more information. The other step to keep in mind is that you search the foreground first, then the middle, and then the rear last. That’s because anyone in the foreground is going to be the most dangerous due to their proximity.
When we do the sweeps, we’re looking for things that don’t seem right. For example, a few months ago, I left a bookstore in an incredibly upscale neighborhood and noticed two guys dressed in wife beaters and baggy jeans leaving the car park in a car that clearly cost less than a happy meal. Next to the bookstore was a gentleman’s tailor with suits beginning at $2,500, an art gallery, a nail salon and day spa, and an upscale day planner store. All the other cars in the parking lot were an array of the crème de la crème of luxury automobiles. It didn’t jibe with me that those guys would be there and in the market for anything in that price range. Sadly, I missed getting the license tag due to it being dusk, but upon arriving at my car, I found I’d become a victim of a spate of robberies where a local gang was targeting SUVs for laptops and guns by punching out the door lock. The models they were picking were domestic, and therefore the alarm didn’t go off when the lock was punched as the car assumed it must be the owner coming through the door. They were in and out in fifteen seconds, and of course, the real danger was that you’d catch them in the act, which would put you at risk of being shot by the lookout man and driver.
We’re also picking out where we parked our car and the most expeditious route to it. We’re looking for people who might be loitering near or en route to your vehicle. A favorite of sexual predators at malls, for example, is to wait beside a victim’s car in a van. As the victim approaches, the door slides open, and the victim is grabbed and dragged into the car in less than three seconds and carted away. By pausing for five seconds before you blindly head to your car, you would have a chance to spot the suspicious vehicle and go back for assistance from mall security. What if it’s not directed at you? What if you’re on vacation and, instead of wandering out of a store or hotel into the middle of a local riot or coup, you spot the melee and return inside? The possibilities are endless, and all it takes is a few seconds to pause and look around and assess what you see happening.
On a personal note, my neighbor in Wilmington, NC, learned this technique from me and used it upon returning home from a trip to the beach. She noticed a screen hanging off the window and feet marks up the front wall of the house. She called 911, and the police turned up, hoping to catch a burglar inside. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case may be, the bad guy hadn’t made it inside, and everything was ok. However, given the large number of burglaries that turn into murders when the thief is caught by the homeowner, it’s very possible a tragedy was prevented that day just by following the simple intel-gathering trick.
Just to hammer home this point, since I began writing this book, a friend of mine became the first murder victim of 2011 in Charlotte, NC, by walking in on a burglar who grabbed a knife and stabbed “Radar” to death. Very sad and all too common.
Places to use it are; leaving a store, exiting your vehicle, leaving home, arriving home, and leaving and arriving at work, to name but a few, and it can also be used entering a room or a bar. In this case, you should be weighing up whoever is inside. In most occurrences, it will be perfectly harmless, and people will just look at you and you at them out of idle curiosity. Occasionally, however, you’ve gone into a bar when you’re from out of town, and it’s the wrong bar. If you don’t want to upset the locals, just beat a hasty retreat and leave, and everything should be fine. If you must stay for whatever reason, then the way to assess them is to look at them fairly quickly and then break eye contact away to one side or the other. Looking up or down can sometimes be misinterpreted as being either submissive or dismissive.
Know The Way Out
An old Special Force adage is never go in somewhere if you don’t have a plan to get out. This applies to self-protection by knowing where your exits are. This is particularly important in hotels, aircraft, and any building you’re not familiar with for obvious reasons. What if you’re in a mall, and a crazed lunatic opens fire on the crowd? What if you’re in a hotel or ballroom, and it catches fire? Knowing where those exits are is going to put you so far ahead of everyone else that it’s not funny.
A fun but serious game played by my team members in the UK on bodyguard assignments was to cover one of the team member’s eyes, and if he couldn’t immediately identify the exits by pointing in their direction, he bought the other guys’ dinner.
You can use the same type of training at home as your kids do at school, and you probably do at work, and that is to practice a fire drill every six months. It’s absolutely stunning how many homes burn down every year in the US and how many people perish unnecessarily. Grab the kids and run through where the exits are and also identify a fire rendezvous point. That’s a place where you all gather after the fire in case you didn’t get out as a group. That enables you to quickly do a headcount and know if everyone made it safely. If you live on the second floor, you can purchase a simple ladder from your local home improvement center that will enable you and the family to safely climb down from the upper floors in case the downstairs is ablaze. (And remember, the bulk of house fires start in the kitchen, so it’s entirely possible the downstairs will be engulfed by the time you realize you’re in danger.)
Another place to know how to escape from, and one often overlooked by the experts, is the trunk of your car. Getting in is easy, right? How do you get out, and how do you do it if it’s dark? Do you hide a flashlight in there, in case? Do you know how to activate the safety release that most modern cars come with? Do you know how to get out of yours if it’s an older model? A slew of people every year are transported unwillingly in the trunks of their own vehicles by carjackers, murderers, and rapists.
We’ll cover some more of this in the travel module of the book concerning both airlines and hotels etc.
3 Second Rule
Get into the habit of locking your doors within three seconds of getting into your house, car, or hotel room. If a predator is following you to take advantage, he has a limited amount of time to get into where you are by following you through the door. By locking the doors immediately, you deny him that access. Far too many people get into their car, for example, and balance their checkbooks or open their new CD and figure out how to put it in the player.
One woman at a local real estate office I spoke to could have avoided a nasty assault and potential pack rape if she’d followed this simple rule. She was talking on her cell phone, writing down info in her day planner, which was on the roof of the car, while she stood in the open car door with one foot balanced on the door sill. Two attackers attempted, in broad daylight, to drag her into their car, punching and pounding her for a scary fifteen seconds before her screaming alerted enough people nearby. Had she got in the car, locked the doors, and then made the call, they probably wouldn’t have even seen her.
The same is true at home. If you’re loading groceries into the house and it requires multiple trips, even though it may be an inconvenience, lock and unlock your doors each time. Complacency and the feeling “oh, it will never happen to me” will come back to haunt you if you get lazy on your security regime. Remember, complacency is the enemy of good security.
Lower Your Profile
This falls under the advice of don’t look like a victim. This is especially true when traveling to areas away from home. We’ve all seen pictures of the ubiquitous loud, obnoxious American tourist replete with a Hawaiian shirt and draped in cameras. Sadly, a lot of people actually dress like that, and when you consider that in a lot of third-world countries, the average person earns in a year what the American earns in a week, little wonder our tourist is looked upon as a piece of corn ripe for the picking. The attitude of the bad guy in the third-world locale is you make plenty of money, so you can always buy another camera or watch.
So, while this is important anywhere, it becomes doubly important around tourist resorts and landmarks frequented by tourists. Think about it from the criminal’s viewpoint. He wants a victim who is task fixated, which is almost all of them standing around agog at one of the natural wonders of the world. Once he’s chosen you and swipes your stuff, he knows the chances of you spending $3,000 to return and testify – in the unlikely event of his capture by local law enforcement – over the theft of a $1,000 camera is slim to none. By lowering your profile, you lessen your chances of being chosen as a potential victim.
How do we do this? There are several ways to consider. One is to buy local clothing so you don’t stand out as much. Some friends of mine on executive protection details go so far as to carry local newspapers and smoke local brand cigarettes. Any opportunist criminal is going to see the local clothing, newspaper, and cigarettes and assume you’re a native. Even if he realizes you’re not, he’ll assume by the carriage of the newspaper that you’re a frequent enough visitor and savvy enough about the location that you don’t fit the profile of the unaware victim he’s looking for.
In real life, the following applies as well. Leave the fancy car behind, don’t wear your Rolex or expensive jewelry, eschew the Hartmann briefcase, don’t stay in five-star hotels and/or flash cash, etc. I know it’s fun to work hard and spend your money on status symbols, but you really do have to pick when and where you wear them. Walking around a third-world country with a Rolex, you may as well wear a sign that says “mug me.” One of my former EP clients had two completely different wardrobes (at my behest). One was for his work in London and New York’s financial districts, and it consisted of suits made in Saville Row, shoes by Church, and a watch that cost the same as a small house. His other trips to Florida and India consisted of clothes from the Wal-Mart equivalent, a Timex, and shoes that cost less than a hundred dollars.
If you’re in the military or law enforcement and traveling aboard, you may want to re-think the screaming eagle haircut as that’s the equivalent of wearing a “take me, hostage because I’m an American soldier or LEO” sign around your neck. Another thing to do is don’t wear anything that has a political or religious saying on it. Many years ago, in Africa, a group of US and UK teenagers were massacred by rebel soldiers who mistook their cheap military surplus clothing for mercenary uniforms. I almost made the mistake once of running with a red bandana in Los Angeles when bodyguarding the rock band “Warrant.” It was a day off, and I was working out at Gold’s Gym near Venice Beach. My teammate pointed out that only a few blocks up the road was the turf of two of LA’s most notorious gangs, the “Bloods” and the “Crips” who indicate their affiliation by wearing red or blue bandanas. Without his timely intervention, I may have been canceling any future birthdays and appearing on the seven o’clock news as the latest victim of gang warfare.
Make sure you don’t become task fixated and look alert as you move about. Don’t walk too fast, and, by the same token, don’t dawdle. Be aware of what type of shopping bags you carry and what they say about you, and don’t drape yourself in souvenirs…criminals love tourists for those aforementioned reasons.
The Buddy System
Special Forces usually travel in four-man teams. Executive protection specialists travel in teams of anything from two to twenty-four members, juvenile gangs and bikers all travel in packs. The common denominator here is that there is safety in numbers.
As a recon diver in the French Foreign Legion, the first rule I was taught about SCUBA diving is that you must NEVER do it alone. You practice what is called “The Buddy System,” in which you always dive with at least one other person. That way, if an accident should happen, someone is able to render aid either by helping the victim directly or going to get help.
I want you to adopt the same methodology whenever possible, and that is to adopt the buddy system and go out in at least pairs. Take a workout partner to the gym, carpool with someone, go shopping with a friend, etc.
Criminals who prey on people have all said that controlling one person is relatively easy…controlling more than that becomes an exercise in frustration and is much harder. Trust me when I say criminals are opportunists. If there are two potential female victims exiting a mall, and one is on her own while the other has two friends with her, the criminal will take the one on her own.
Buddies don’t have to be real either…imagine you’re a criminal, and you’re trying to force your way into a woman’s house, and she screams out, “John, Tony…get the shotgun and come quick.” John, Tony, and the shotgun are all imaginary, but the criminal has no way of knowing that. The same ruse can be used by a lone woman concerned about getting into an elevator with a guy standing inside who makes her uneasy. All she has to say is, “you go on ahead, I’m waiting for my husband and his friends.”
Whether the friends are real or imaginary, there is no question that there is safety in numbers.
Study Time
Make sure you study local crime trends, whether at home or traveling. Most people spend more time working out what the weather will be like before traveling somewhere so they can pack accordingly than they’ll spend looking up what they’re going to face locally, crime-wise. In the resource section of this book, you’ll find links to various websites where you can log in and research any location in the world for an update. There are also companies in the private sector, such as the very famous Kroll International, who, for a fee, provide Fortune 500 company execs with detailed reports on what is going on in any area in the world. Local news stations are a good source, as is the internet. In a lot of places, the local police will have a resource officer who will be able to help. As a bodyguard, I always contacted local law enforcement and asked them about parts of town to avoid and so on.
By knowing what is going on, you’ll be in a much better position to lessen your chances of being targeted. For example, my hometown is currently experiencing a mass crime spree in car break-ins with gang members hitting SUVs, looking for both laptops and guns. We’re also enjoying a spate of home invasions. Preparing to deal with those two scenarios is going to be a lot different for someone living in an area prone to carjacking and a serial rapist.
In the former, I might make sure to secure valuables out of sight in the trunk or not bring them at all to deal with car break-ins, fitting panic alarms, and a panic room, and upgrade my locks to deal with the home invasion scenario. In the second example, however, I’m going to find out what model is the favorite for the carjacker, make sure I don’t drive one and be hyper-vigilant whenever I’m stopped in traffic. If I was a female with regard to the rapist, take self-defense classes, read and practice the techniques in a book like this and carry OC spray. (If permitted in my local jurisdiction.)
Would your plan change if you were going somewhere exotic on business and found out they were kidnapping Americans and, in your second-choice destination, it was renowned for pickpockets? In the first case, I might lower my profile and go, native, arrange the meeting via conference call, or go with a team of close personal protection specialists. In the second example, I’m going to leave the bulk of my money somewhere safe, carry traveler’s checks, and keep a dummy wallet stuffed with newspaper and expired credit cards that I can lob away from my mugger while hoofing it in the opposite direction.
You get the idea, I’m sure. Take the time and learn what’s going on in your neighborhood and the city in which you live to deal with local crime problems, and utilize the resource section of this book to dig up info on local crime trends in the area you have to go for either vacation or business or both. The advanced knowledge will pay off in spades one day when it prepares you for what’s about to happen.
Crime Scene Number 2
Never ever leave crime scene number one for crime scene number two. You’ve almost certainly heard this advice before, but it is of paramount importance. Paul Pfingst, a District Attorney in San Diego, CA, said, “Murder is one thing, but torture, mayhem, and savagery – it takes more time for these crimes. Every torture case I have prosecuted involved a victim isolated and completely controlled.”
It’s a chilling statement but true. Someone who wants your money is going to hit you now and take it and immediately flee the scene in a bid to place as much distance between the crime scene and himself. Any sexual predator or serial killer, on the other hand, is going to have to go hunting to find his victim, subdue them, and take them back to his lair, which will be set up according to his particular twisted fantasies. There have been cases of victims kept alive for years, abused on a daily basis, and discarded once they get beyond their prime.
Rape victims are not the only ones at risk here. Think of a kidnapping victim in a foreign country. You’re going to be attacked at one location and then moved to another. Your greatest chance for survival will be during the first assault because the second location will be specially designed to keep you out of sight – and sound – of any potential rescuers.
You have options and chances at crime scene one…time is on your side at that moment, not the aggressor’s. Do whatever you have to do to escape. Go limp, fight back, and scream. Yes, it may mean being shot and/or killed, but the critical question to ask is, “if someone is willing to kill you in broad daylight in a parking lot, think of what he’ll be more likely to do in an isolated spot that he controls?”
Codewords
Make sure you have a code word that you practice with your significant other and/or family members or people you hang out with regularly. Again, this is a page straight out of Bodyguarding 101. You need some discrete way of alerting other members of the team to a potential threat without alerting the threat himself. The codeword can be a signal, for example, that means, “honey, grab the kids and head to the car as fast as you possibly can,” or simply, “We’ve got trouble.”
When I worked security at the Town & Country Club in London, the DJ was given the code words so he could, via the PA system, alert every single security member without causing panic amongst the audience. If we had a bomb threat, for example, the call might go out for “Mr. Brown is needed in the office,” which would let us know we had to begin searching the premises. We had another in the event of a fire, and so on. Imagine instead if he’d announced there was possibly a bomb in the club. That sort of panic killed a slew of people in a club in Chicago shortly after 9-11, when someone let off tear gas inside. A stampede ensued because the patrons thought it was a chemical attack by terrorists.
Make up your own, make it something you wouldn’t use inadvertently, and practice it occasionally. The one I figured out with my ex was, “Honey, why don’t you go buy something with the credit card.” Now the word “honey” was a term of endearment I would never normally use, so that let her know immediately that something was up…and of course, I’d never tell her to go buy something, especially on my credit card. (We had separate accounts).
Businessmen who go through anti-kidnapping training are taught similar codes. During a “proof of life” call, for example, they might ask, “did all five kids get their report cards?” which lets the listeners know there are five kidnappers. Once again, it is not enough to read these and think, “wow, great idea.” You absolutely must sit down with your kids and significant others and practice them until you have them down pat. You also should do a refresher every once in a while. I don’t know any professional security specialist worth his salt who doesn’t train and practice scenarios on a regular basis to keep the knowledge fresh.
What If Drill
This is another one straight out of the bodyguard’s playbook. Someone once said of bodyguards, “they’re professional paranoiacs,” and it’s probably got some truth in it. Our job is to prevent an attack from happening in the first place, so we spend loads of time avoiding routines and so on. Another major part of the job is being hyper-alert in the event of an attack on the principal. To do this, we play the “what if” game. What if gunmen burst through the door right now? What if that truck in front slammed its brakes on and blocked us in? What if the guy over there suddenly pulls a weapon from under his coat and begins firing? By imagining these worst-case scenarios and running through possible options, you’ve shortened the OODA loop we talked about earlier, which means you’ll be out-thinking the opposition and moving faster than anyone else who’ll have to perceive the threat, assess what their plan is and then implement it. You will be light years ahead because you foresaw the attack in your mind’s eye before it happened and formulated a plan of action already.
Now that doesn’t mean you spend your whole day doing this – unless you’re a close personal protection specialist – but do it for some common scenarios occasionally, so you have already run through some options in your mind. Do it next time you’re at the lights in your vehicle. What would you do if a guy walked up with a gun and wanted your car? Do it on the way to your car in the parking deck…if the guy coming towards you pulled a knife and told you to go with him, what would you do? You don’t have to do either of those every day to be ahead of 99% of the population. Once or twice every now and then will suffice.
It was interesting to note that on the Motorcycle Safety Federation course that I used to do every couple of years, one of the drills was identical to this. We were taught when riding to always be thinking, “what if that car suddenly turned in front of me?” “What if the car in front suddenly jammed on breaks?” “What if that oncoming car came across the median and into oncoming traffic?” and so on. Once again, they prepare you in an easily practiced way to be moves ahead of the average person during a catastrophe.
Think Like The Enemy
One of my good friends in law enforcement took part in a bodyguard course for witness protection which involved an exercise whereby they had to plan how to assassinate a public figure. I attended another course that incorporated a similar idea, except ours was to plan the kidnapping of an executive. In both cases, real people were targeted (unbeknownst to them) and afterward presented with the plans of how they planned to kill and/or kidnap them. This was done in the former case to alert the VIP so he could better protect himself, and in the latter, it was a case of that and possibly drumming up some business by the company in question.
Regardless of the motive, the exercise is brilliant because, once you look at the problem from the enemy’s viewpoint, you can see where the weaknesses in your defense are and plan accordingly. Later, in the chapter on home defense, I’m going to have you look at your house as if you were a burglar trying to break in and see if you can spot any weaknesses that need fixing. Here though, in this exercise, the idea is to go out one day and play the part of a junkie in need of money to buy a fix. Who would you pick as your victim? More importantly, why would you pick them? Is it because they’re small in stature? Is it because they’re task-fixated and, therefore, easy to sneak up on? Is it because they stupidly flashed a wad of cash at the store they were in, or maybe they’ve left their purse unattended for a second to sort out the toddler in the stroller? You get the idea. The goal then is to ask yourself, “why did I pick that particular person, and am I ever guilty of doing what they did?” If the answer is yes, then shore up your defense. When I run the “How to Be Your Own Bodyguard Course,” it’s a two-day training event with both lectures and hands-on training. One of those hands-on sessions is this one, usually done over lunch at the mall. In one of the classes in Tampa, Florida, two of the female students came back from lunch and this exercise, absolutely stunned and shocked at how easy it had been. One lady told me she’d picked four people just leaving the hotel and entering the Mall entryway. Remember that criminals are opportunists, so the harder you make their job, the more likely it is that they’ll pick an easier, softer target. Remember, their goal is money, not necessarily YOUR money. Anyone’s will do, and ensuring it’s not yours is your number one priority.
CHAPTER 23
TRAVEL SECURITY
For many people, traveling is the only time they think about security. When they’re home or driving around, it’s the last thing on their mind, largely because they’re in their comfort zone and victims of the old “it never happens here mindset.” Taking this into account, this next section will tackle the best ways to protect yourself and your property when you’re on the road, whether it be national or international. Never lose sight of the fact that bad guys love tourists for the following reasons: They’re usually carrying cash or credit cards; they’re usually lugging cameras, watches, and, in the case of business travel, laptops, etc. More often than not, they’re task fixated studying maps, looking for landmarks, lost or gawking at a particular tourist attraction; they’re not likely to spend thousands coming back to identify a thief who stole their nine hundred dollar camera; they’re potential kidnap victims (especially in third world countries) and/or victims of terrorism where security standards overseas are a pale shadow of what they are here in the States and other developed nations.
This section has been set up to work in a logical sequence. We’ve just taken care of our house before we leave on a trip in the section on “Home Security,” and now we’re going to go over airport security, hotel security, and taxis, as well as being out and about on foot. Before we break it down into various modes of travel, we’ll go over some general rules that apply across the board.
General Travel Tips
Gather information about where you’re going: (See the resource section for exact sources) This comes under the heading of intelligence gathering and, one thing that was hammered into us in Special Forces during my time with the Legion and later on bodyguard courses, is that time spent gathering intelligence is never wasted. Too many people spend more time studying the weather of wherever they’re planning to go than local crime trends. You have nobody to blame but yourself if you land in your dream vacation spot to find yourself in the middle of a coup and held by the local brigand and his henchmen.
It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as that. What about the late eighties and early nineties when Florida experienced a spate of carjackings in which local criminals were specifically targeting rental cars (identified by their advertising stickers). A German tourist was dragged from her car during a bump and rob and had her skull crushed when the bad guys sped off in her car and ran her over in the process. To make matters worse, the whole event took place in front of her mother and her children. If you were intending to travel to Florida during that period and rent a car, and you bothered to do your homework by researching local crime stats, you’d have cottoned on to the bump-and-rob tactics and the targeting of rental vehicles. Advance knowledge such as that would have led you to pick somewhere else, drive your own car, remove the rental company stickers, and not stop during a fender bender, but rather drive somewhere public or call law enforcement on your cell phone from inside your (locked) car.
Document Safety
It’s always a good practice to make copies of all your documentation and keep them separate. U.S. passports are particularly coveted in certain countries, and in the event yours is stolen, it will expedite the renewal at your local embassy if you have copies of all the paperwork. It’s also safer when a bank or local business demands your passport to complete a transaction, as you can hand over the photocopy and jealously guard the real thing. Similarly, take a couple of passport photos with you as well as they can also expedite acquiring a local visa, for example.
Leave An Itinerary
Always make sure you leave an itinerary with family members or a trusted friend. In the event you’re kidnapped or are injured, and out of circulation in a local hospital, the itinerary at home will make the search for you so much easier than having to tell law enforcement agents, “Well, we knew he was planning to go to South America.”
Emergency Contact Numbers
Take a list of emergency contact numbers with you and include in that numbers for the local consulate or embassy as well as contacts at the airline, hotel, rental car company, and so on.
Plan In Advance
There’s a lot to be said for not planning a trip and rolling with the punches as you explore the local countryside. From a self-protection viewpoint, though, it can be a nightmare, and it makes leaving the aforementioned itinerary a problem. By planning, you have read up on local crime trends and customs, know how much money you’ll need, what the weather will be like, places to avoid, and places to see. I learned, for example, when accompanying the celebrated American artist Peter Max and his exhibition to Russia that toilet paper, toothpaste, and soap would be in short supply. I also found out that Marlboro cigarettes could be used as currency at the time. All you had to do was stand on the side of the road and hold up a carton, and locals would stop and take you wherever you wanted to go. I found out, too, that Levi jeans were worth their weight in gold, and small tokens of things like soap and TP would be very welcome by locals. Knowledge such as that is priceless when visiting other countries.
Don’t Be An Obvious Tourist
We’ve all heard about the ugly American tourist in their loud floral shirts, cameras around their necks, and flashing their cash like it grows on trees. Unfortunately, it’s all too true. I’ll never forget the day I was on the tube in London and overheard (along with the rest of the carriage), one American gentleman who’d just discovered a fellow Yank on the train. They were about eight seats apart, which didn’t stop them from having their conversation. One of them was telling the other he was thinking of going to see Stonehenge. His newfound friend, at full volume, told him, “Aw hell, don’t bother, it’s just a pile of rocks.”
Remember, bad guys target tourists, so don’t identify yourself as one. An old trick from my bodyguarding days was to carry a local newspaper and stick a pack of local brand cigarettes in my pocket. Now, I don’t smoke, and I sure couldn’t read most of the papers, but any local criminal element looking for a potential victim assumed that I was either a local or familiar enough with their country that I could speak the lingo and knew my way around.
If you’re going to need a map to get around, study it in your hotel room before you go out, or consider hiring a local guide. Using a taxi driver to take you to where you want to go is another viable option. Just don’t stand around in the middle of a crowded sidewalk studying your map. Not only are you identifying yourself as an out-of-towner, but you’re also task-fixated again, which will give the bad guy ample opportunity to make his approach undetected.
Be Aware Of Your Clothing
There’s a well-known story in the UK about a group of teenagers who were on a budget trip to Africa. To save money, they bought all their clothing from the local Army-Navy store, figuring it would be cheap and hard-wearing as well as full of pockets. Unfortunately, they were mistaken for mercenaries by the local militia, who lined them all up and shot them.
Clothing can also identify you as an out-of-towner again. Just how many cowboy hats do you think you’ll see in Hawaii? And how many white shoes and floral shirts will be spotted in downtown Manhattan? Research your intended destination again and dress as the locals do as far as conveniently possible.
I was bodyguarding the band Warrant during their heyday and, at the time, was in LA with them. It was a day off, so the other bodyguard and I decided to work out at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach. I normally wore a red bandana when I trained and was going to get a run-in before lifting. Fortunately for me, one of the local gym rats pointed out that two notorious street gangs lived a few blocks behind the gym, and one of those gangs was identified by the wearing of a red bandana. He was certain I’d be mistaken for one and shot by the other if I’d gone for my run wearing it.
The same can be said for t-shirts that might either deliberately or inadvertently insult locals. Your Ku Klux Klan t-shirt might be all the rage in the deep south at a trailer park but I’d submit it might get you some unwarranted attention in Harlem in New York, NY.
Be Aware Of Your Haircut
Just as your clothing can get you killed, so can your haircut. Go to any local mall in the States, and you can spot the cops and military guys a mile away with their screaming eagle haircuts (extremely short sides and a tuft of longer hair on the top). Wear something like that on a flight to the mid-east that is taken by terrorists, and you’re going to be in a world of hurt. As the old spy novels said, try and be the “gray man” or, in other words, the guy that goes to the party that nobody remembers or can describe afterward. There have been plenty of stories of off-duty police officers, out with their families, being targeted by gang members who’ve spotted the haircut and know exactly what it is the off-duty cop does. This is more important than ever due to the recent spate of attacks on law enforcement officers around the country.
Sanitize Your Passport
If you’re going to certain countries, you’re going to want to sanitize your passport. For example, it’s not kosher to go to some Middle Eastern countries with an Israeli visa in your passport. The same used to be true of South African visas discovered during visits to other African nations. When I worked as a bodyguard in London, I had the Australian embassy issue me a second passport. They don’t like doing it, but if you explain the reason and back it up with documentation and tickets to the offending country, they’ll usually issue you with one. When I went to Russia with Peter Max, they didn’t actually stamp the passport but stapled the entry/exit visa into the passport to be removed later should it become necessary.
Put Personal Affairs In Order
One of the things we’ve learned over the years from de-briefing kidnap victims is that there is great peace of mind in knowing that all your personal affairs, such as wills and bills, have been updated and paid, etc. Don’t put it off until your return because if there is an unnecessary delay – and remember, it may be something as innocuous as a hospital stay due to an injury while on vacation – you might find yourself in financial trouble upon your return. Good travel is stress-free travel.
Dr.’s Letter For Medications
You’ll absolutely want to take a letter from your medico when you travel with prescription drugs to prove that you’re in need of the meds in question and not a drug smuggler. This is absolutely no joke, as certain countries treat drug smuggling very seriously and execute almost immediately anyone convicted of trafficking. Also, keep in mind that what might be considered over-the-counter stuff here might be a prescription somewhere else. Motrin, for example, is a prescription-only drug in the UK but available here over the counter, and let’s not forget what happened to Sylvester Stallone when he visited Australia with his “supplements” that got him in hot water down there.
On the subject of medicine, consider carrying extra if you’re traveling for any length of time. Trying to renew a prescription overseas can be almost impossible; in some cases, the same drugs don’t even exist. The same can be said for prescription eyeglasses and/or contacts. Nothing can be worse than losing your last pair of contacts in some foreign hell hole and facing the dilemma of traveling without them.