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Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.
The Pocket-Sized Urban Encounter Kit
By Morgan Atwood
Since I was fourteen years old Ive carried tools for self defense.
Since that time I’ve also made a study of realistic defense and real
street fights to better understand how such encounters occur. With better
knowledge of real self defense comes a better understanding of what may be
needed after the fact.
Medical attention might be needed after an encounter, but
you might first have to make it out of hostile territory to get that
medical attention. This is called Street Escape & Evasion. With
this in mind I have assembled a small kit, which can be carried almost
anywhere, that offers some options for personal medical care as well as
escape and evasion.
The basic platform for this is a $10 USD Travel
Wallet from
Wal-Mart.
It has an outside zip pocket, an inside money pocket with a zip pocket
behind that, a slot for a short pen, a slot for ID, a pocket behind that,
and an inner mesh pocket with a zipper. It has a snap buckle fastener on
the outside. The “Travel Wallet” is larger than a normal wallet,
but fits nicely inside a jacket or vest pocket and isn’t too bulky.
Another wallet that could be used for this kit is the
SpecOps
Tactical Holds Everything (T.H.E.) Wallet. It is a different format
but could be used in manner very similar to that shown here.
Inside my “Travel Wallet” I can carry quite a
lot of cash and coin, as well as my ID, business cards, and a small
writing tool. To these I have added a
CRKT
K.I.S.S. folder, eight band-aids folded up behind my ID card, two
2x3 bandages, eight feet of surgical tape, a small sterile stitching
kit with surgical thread and needle, a tourniquet, and an
AT&T
60-minute phone card. Ive also replaced the small pen with a carbon
fiber spike.
The band-aids go behind my ID, the K.I.S.S. goes in the
pocket behind the ID slot, the spike goes in the pen slot next to the ID,
and the earplugs and stitching kit go in the outside pocket.
Band-aids, tourniquet, bandages, tape and stitching kit
are for emergency personal medical care after an accident or attack.
Together they are just enough to patch yourself up and get out of
Dodge, or to help you until you can get back to the larger medical kit in
your vehicle.
The phone card provides an option for escape and evasion
that is better than carrying loose change for a payphone. The phone
cant eat the card, the card weighs less than change, and you can get a
lot more calls out of it.
The K.I.S.S. is not the ultimate choice for a defensive
blade, although it is a handy utility knife. Some Velcro and an
Emerson
La Griffe or
Cold
Steel Urban Pal would work much better. You can apply adhesive
Velcro to the La Griffe or Pal sheath and sew-on or apply the
corresponding Velcro patch to the inside of the pocket where the K.I.S.S.
now rides.
The spike is more a novelty than anything else. A short
pen would be more useful, and the spike inside the wallet isnt as easy
to access as it would be elsewhere. The spike, however would be another
viable last-ditch weapon. Because it looks like a pen, it has a
small element of surprise to it. Its made from carbon fiber tubing, so
its really more like a really big hypodermic needle than a spike. A Bic
pen cap fits it nicely, so it can be carried discreetly outside the
wallet.
Editor’s
note: Check your local laws! Do not carry
any item that can be considered
an illegal weapon.
The Travel Wallet functions as my main wallet, which is
why I carry cash and business cards in it. It brings everything
together: street survival tools and daily necessities. It fits
comfortably inside a jacket pocket or in the cargo pocket on BDU-style
pants. As a unit, the wallet comprises a simple street E&E kit
that is handy and easily carried.
The only additions I can think of making to this setup,
aside from those already mentioned, would be a small LED light, (such as a
Photon Micro-Light) and a
Leatherman
Micra, which has scissors for tape/gauze and includes other handy
tools. However, this is a work in progress, so it’s anyone’s guess what
Ill find to add to this kit. Of course, this is just my approach.
It fits my needs, but yours may be different.