Captain Jack's Pirate Hats

Captain Jack arrested at JFK on Weapons ChargesShare

Today at 6:55pm

Now THAT is dramatic! This is the 2nd tale of amazing things that have happened to me as Captain Jack Sparrow. Well, truthfully this one happened the day after I played Jack Sparrow in New York City. Where do I begin?

It was June 2006 and Rebecca was pregnant and we were expecting Wilde to be born on the 13th of June. On June 8th we found out about a Pirates Of The Caribbean Look alike Contest being held by FAO Schwarz and toy company Zizzle, with a grand prize of a new 2007 Volvo XC90 to be held on that same day, June 13th. Normally I would have been very excited about the opportunity to possibly win, but I was focused on my wife's condition and the up coming arrive of our son. So I didn't plan on going. Rebecca insisted that I GO. She said that this was our chance to win $50,000. the equivilant cash pay out. We looked online through Expedia.com and found a last minute inexpensive flight. Rebecca said " This is meant to be, Go! WIN! I'll hold off on the baby, this will make a great story."...yeah

I booked a hotel and flew into New York on the 12th of June. I was traveling light, just a carry on backpack and my gun case. My gun case has my sword and my flintlock pistol, and two pocket knives. The Flintlock and sword are for my Jack ensamble, the pocket knives are for... well, attached to my pockets when walking the streets of New York. (like many of you male readers, I've carried a pocket knife since I was old enough to own one and was in boy scouts. I grew up with knifes and have had one in hand for chores everyday of my life without ever posing a threat to anyone. Ok back to the story. I checked my gun case at the Portland OR airport following correct proceedures, and the case was sent to new York with no incidence. Stowed safely in the belly of the Plane from point A to Point B.

I arrived, checked into my hotel and went out to do a little recon. I visited FAO Schwarz the day before the event to get my bearings. I went and had dinner, went back to my hotel laid out my costume, wig, make up, and accessories and went to bed. The contest was from 3:00-5:oopm and was actually to be a "look alike contest for Jack, Will and Elizabeth" and was a timely publicity event prior to the soon to open POTC: Dean Man's Chest, opening on July 7th.

I arrived a couple hours early, having walked the 10 blocks from my hotel to Times Square. The walk was quite fun, as walking through a crowded city as Jack Sparrow can be, Though I must admit that New Yorkers seam a bit more cut off, like they are busy with their own stuff, or have blinders on.. or maybe they see so much stuff that is "out there" on a daily basis that they are a little jaded. You definitely get more reaction in Portland, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

I'm one of the first to arrive, but more and more people do over the next 2 hours and when they actually have us move from a mob crowding the door and into a line, I end up about half way back. I have a great time standing next to Ron Rodriguez who looks very much like Johnny Depp. His outfit was not as close as mine, many little things wrong, but man... he looks like Johnny. I wasn't worried. This is a Captain Jack Sparrow Look alike contest not a Johnny Depp look alike contest. There are some other good Jacks, Toby Markham for example is in attendence. He has the other best Captain Jack's Costume, right up there with mine. I'm thinking it will be between him and me. He and I. Us two.

And then, while in line, I get to see Toby in front of me up before the three judges. He has the Captain Jack down. His got the swagger, the hand movements, voice isn't quite right, and he's much too pale, but still.. he is very very good. I'll be the first to admit, I didn't have the voice either. I didn't have the mannerisms as well as him. I realize that out of the 60+ Jacks, Toby will probably be the winner.

My Turn comes and the first thing out of one the judges mouth as she addresses me is "what, did you have an accident with your bronzer?" Totally threw me off. yes I was tan. I had tanned up for the event, and with only a couple days notice I used a bit of spray on tan. It was not however any darker, oranger, or more "off" than Jack's in the first POTC movie. In any event I didn't recover. I answered their few questions, did my best Jack one liner when they requested and moved along heart sunken. I knew they had not given me the attention, asked the question the same way as they had Toby. There was no "positive vibe" between me and these three people. I watched Ron do his time up there. He didn't try the voice. He seamed a bit shy. His costume was not so great and he had a ridiculously big hat, but... damn he looked like Johnny Depp... Then came a silly , very "campy" Jack Sparrow. I mean Jack on the extreme "Swishy" side of Jackness. Imagine Captain Jack Sparrow as a female impersonator. The Judges, especially my favorite, ate it up. And as he left the stage I watched as the judges all exchanged head nods. Oh No! No way!..

Waiting for the remaining Jacks, the two Will Turners and couple of Elizabeths was excrutiating. The original idea was to pick the best Jack Sparrow ( Volvo winner) The Best Will Turner ($2500.) and the best Elizabeth ($1000.) but since they had such a poor turn out for the supporting cast, Zizzle decided to award the top three Jack's. Do I have a chance at winning something? They announce the Winners: #1 Ron Rodriguez, Toby Markham, and Christopher Lee...something or other. While they are taking the winners out side for pix and to show Them the car, a young lady, some assistant comes up to me and gives me a Zizzle Toy voucher for some Pirates of the Caribbean toys and tells me " this is for you Mini Jack". I said "Mini Jack, what?" She said "you got 5th place, The judges called you Mini Jack". I guess 5th out of 60 some Jacks is not as bad as it could have been. Not as Good as I would have liked. Poor Ron has to figure out how to get the Volvo XC90 back to Southern Cal. Tuff luck... I was starving so I ate, hung out, picked out my toys and decided I should call home. By the time I called I was unable to talk with Rebecca. But as she hadn't called.. I was sure the baby hadn't come yet. I just want to go home. I went back to my hotel and packed. Got up the next day and did some shopping, walked around New York a bit and took a cab to the Airport for my evening flight.

Here is where the story gets good, thanks for reading all the background, it was setting the stage for what comes next... So I check go to the ticket counter, I check my gun case (same contents as before) The ticket counter attendant asks " does this case contain a fire arm?"

I answer " yes it does". Q "Is it unloaded?" A."Yes it is" Q "Is the Case locked?" A "Yes It is locked". She says "Ok take this over there and send it through the scanner. Have a nice flight". I take the case over to the scanner and send it through. The Scanner operator looks at it briefly and passes it on. he is now looking at the next bag in line. The case comes down to yet another Airport Security personel. He says to me "Is this your case?" A " Yes" He says " It looks good. Hang on though, we have to have the Port Authority Sign off on it." and then he makes a call.

About 10 minutes later a Police Officer from NYPD Port Authority shows up.

Q "Is this Your Case"

A "yes officer"

Q Do you have the key?

A. " yes officer"

"Please Open The case and stand back"

I comply and he looks over the contents

Q " is this firearm functional?"

A " yes, If you have gunpowder, shot, a flint, a ramrod, none of which I have".

Q "Do you have a permit for this gun?"

A " It's a flintlock, I didn't think you needed..."

At this point the Officer is on his walky talky calling for back up.

he asks me my business in New York, and I explain to him all about the contest, I show him the poster, I show him pictures on my camera during the 15 minutes while we wait for another NYPD Port Authority Officer to arrive. He walks up. " Is this the guy" and he scutinizes me and then turns his attention to the case " No permit." he starts to pull the sword from it's sheath.

The other cop gets out his pocket leatherman tool and using the measurement on the side starts to measure the blade. I say " The blade is 27 inches long". They both look at me. They confer and one gets back on the walky talky. Officer 2 starts asking the same questions that Officer 1 asked and so I give him the same answers, Though he acts even more suspicious of me than the first Officer. Another 15 minutes and a NYPD Officer, obviously higher in rank than the other two, shows up. "What do we have here?"

Officer 2 " He's got a firearm with no permit, he's got a sword with a 27 blade, he's got two pocket knives..."

The Commander looks at me sternly " why are you in New York?"

I try to explain it to him and while doing , I accidentally leaned towards him to show the pix on my camera. he takes a step back, his hand on his holster and commands me to step back. Which I do. I say to him as well as the other officers, "I was checking this case as checked baggage. It is tagged with a firearms tag. I've done everything exactly the way I'm supposed to..."

The Officers confer again and come to the decision " Assume the position" like right out of a cop show. I guess they assume by now that everyone in our society just simply knows what that position is. They hand cuff me. One Officer takes the gun case the other takes my carry on, and the three off them march me through JFK Airport out to their Police Cruisers. They take me to the Port Authority Station. They make me take off my belt, my shoes, empty my pockets, and put me in a holding room, handcuffed. Where I am held for several hours. During which time police keep peeking in. Some shake their heads, some just look disapproving. One time Officer 2 shows up to chat with me and tell me I'm in" big trouble" and that they " do things differently in New York than Portland" " They don't allow people to travel with weapons". I cam comforted a bit during this time by the fact that I can hear two officers in the ajacent room flipping through books. I hear the pages turning and I hear one say " No, I can't find anything on Flintlock Pistols... I don't think that one will stick". Then I hear " ...apparently you don't need a permit for a flintlock.." I breath a little easier. Finally the officer in charge of the Port Authority night Duty show up an introduces himself. He is holding on of my Captain Jack Sparrow Impersonator business cards with my picture on it, and my camera. "Let me get this straight. You are an actor?"

A "yes"

Q " you were in New York For two days to do an event?"

A "Yes Sir"

Q " These things in question are your props?"

A "exactly"

Q " What worries me is that you might have done some other mischief while you were here. why do you have these pocket knives?"

A " Honestly? Protection".

He says "That's what we are here for."

Now, I could have explained to him my beliefs and statistics about how the police often show up after the fact in life threatening situations.. I thought better of it and said nothing.

He looked me over again and thought for a moment. "If you were to leave here tonight and then be contacted by the DA's Office, would you come back to New York?..."

A"yes"

"...because this is in the DA's hands now. I'm gonna keep this one of your knives. You don't need to carry two... and it still concerns me. Your other option is that I book you, throw you in Jail tonight and you get a hearing in the next couple days when they can schedule it."

A " I'll come back, if they contact me. I'd like to go home. My wife is supposed to have our baby any time now..."

They gave me and my luggage a ride back to the airport. My flight was long gone. The airline that I was flying was nice enough to rebook me onto a flight first thing in the morning. They even had a locker that they could hold my gun case in until the next morning.

The interesting thing. they would give the case back to me and I would need to go through the same process again. 1st, Submit the case at the ticket counter. 2nd have it scanned , and 3rd have NYPD Port Authority sign off on it. The first two parts went fine, as expected.... boy was I nervous about step 3. Here came the NYPD Officer. Not the same one as the night before. I was holding my breath.

Q " Is this your gun Case?"

A "yes Officer"

Q " "will you please unlock and open it?"

A "yes Sir"

I do and he looks things over. " Are you a Revelutionary War reenactor or something?"

A " yes, a Pirate re-enactor and Jack Sparrow Impersonator>"

"Cool, have a good Flight".