A video of an Amazon customer approaching Jeff Bezos has sparked questions online about his bodyguard’s fake arm, and the reason behind it.
Approaching your celebrity idol isn’t an uncommon thing to do, but when one man walked up to Amazon CEO and founder Bezos in the middle of the street, things appeared tense.
The unnamed man pointed the camera towards the billionaire and his stern bodyguard, as he said: "Mr Bezos, I love what you do with Amazon. Hey, I'm a Prime customer, what's above being a Prime customer?”
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As he began to speak, Bezos’s guard began to look around the area, namely behind and beside him and away from the man, while holding one of his fingers in his hand.
Bezos answered: “Thank you, I thank you for being a customer. I really appreciate it.”
While it could seem like a normal interaction between a fan and a celeb, something wasn’t right with the vibe.
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That’s because the bodyguard’s arm appeared to be stiff, almost as if it was fake.
Now, we’ve all seen the video of King Charles III’s bodyguard’s fake hand, and this looks very similar to it.
People in the comments of the YouTube video seemed to agree, with one person writing: “Yea that’s a fake arm big time. I bet he has a mp5 or similar under there.”
Another stated, “He’s got his real left hand on a firearm”, while someone else wrote: “He had it aimed at him.”
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So, what reason would he have to wear a fake arm?
The general consensus is that he was concealing a firearm to protect Bezos.
On Quora, many professionals speculated the reason for a fake arm or hand, with one writing: “The reason being are misdirection and shorten response time when things get bad. There is a video on youtube where a random guy walk in to him on the street just to say hi.
“If you look at the bodyguard’s hand, it looks so stiff…its kind of made out of rubber or something. And he looks so tense and ready just after he heard that his boss, Jeff Bezos, responded to that friendly guy.
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“At a time, he probably had so many worse case scenerio in his head including killing this random guy.”
Another shared that it’s actually a former U.S. Navy SEAL named Mike D, who lost his ‘arms in a combat-related incident while serving in the military’.
The person claimed that the man ‘has continued to lead a successful career, including working in personal security’ and that his ‘prosthetic arms has not hindered his ability to perform his duties effectively’.
Whether or not this man is in fact Mike D hasn’t been proven, and a quick Google search shows up no results.
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But the general belief is that he is a man with a fake arm, hiding a firearm to protect his boss by any means necessary.
However, another shared that Bezos’ executive protection team is ‘most likely drawn from the ranks of former USSS (Secret Service) agents, whose 'hands-ready' posture is often so practiced and motionless that the agents’ arms can seem artificial.’
So, maybe it’s not a fake arm, it’s a pretend fake arm?
She explained: “There’s no rational reason for anyone protecting Bezos to wear a ‘tactical prosthetic’, if only because his close protective detail is his entire protective detail.”
The professional went on to say that a fake arm could cause issues during an emergency event, writing: “If you only have three close-protection folks on you, one of them trying to evacuate their principal with a fake arm swinging around is going to cause more problems than solutions."
Instead, she theorized that it’s all for show, and that Bezos’s money is better spent elsewhere.
She concluded: “And the fact that Amazon pays $1.6 million each year for Bezos’ private, non-work security—the largest budget of any public company in the world, although Facebook’s Zuck is a close second—means much more effort goes into collecting intelligence and movement planning than acquiring bespoke prosthetics for gunfights.”
Topics: Amazon, Jeff Bezos, YouTube, Viral
Britt Jones