At nearly 4 a.m. the shuttle bus trudged through the Port of Long Beach’s Hanjin Terminal having finished its regular routine of taking longshore workers from the parking lot to the dock for their hoot shift. ILWU Local 26 watchman Officer Mark Aproda was at the wheel Saturday, March 15. When he made his usual visual sweep of the area, he spotted two guys by the perimeter fence in dark clothing. They were wearing no reflective gear. Aproda knew he had either a safety or security violation.

As soon as he saw them, Aproda called the sergeant in charge, Sgt. Mitchell, and asked if there was any activity scheduled there that night. A quick check of the vendor and entry log books ended negative and they knew they had trespassers. Mitchell immediately called the Harbor Patrol, a division of the Long Beach Police Dept., and radioed other watchmen for backup.

Aproda approached the suspects armed only with his badge and his wits. ILWU watchmen don’t carry guns or handcuffs and can’t make physical arrests. So he just started talking to them. One said they were students doing a project and had permission to be there. The other said they just were happening along and weren’t doing anything. Their stories conflicted and didn’t add up. Their small SUV was parked on the other side of the fence where they seemed to have gotten through a gate left open at construction site next door.

"They had real sophisticated camera equipment set up, two cameras on tripods that cost at least $5,000 each," Aproda said. "The way they were posted they had a clear shot of whole vessel operation in process then."

Aproda knew he had to stall waiting for his backup.

"I was kind of bluffing them a bit," Aproda said. "I gained their trust for a minute and made them believe I was going to let them go."

He spotted a third man about 25 feet from where they got in who was hiding out like he was a lookout. Within minutes another ILWU watchman who was patrolling the terminal, Officer Clarence Britt, responded to the call for backup. They asked to see the suspects’ IDs.

One of them was anxious to leave, but Britt told them they just needed to check their identifications and then would let them go.

"The other two kind of liked that idea and told the third guy, ‘Just give him the ID. We’re not here to cause problems,’" Britt said. "But once we had it, they couldn’t leave. We told them to take a seat."

Two of them had California driver’s licenses with Long Beach addresses. The third had a Portuguese passport.

Soon two other Local 26 watchmen arrived and so did the Harbor Patrol. The Long Beach Terrorist Task Force, called by the Harbor Patrol, showed up a couple of minutes later. The Coast Guard and the Navy were contacted and also appeared quickly.

"They took it seriously," Aproda said.

At that point the police took over, arrested and questioned the suspects, searched their vehicle and took them away. Later, Aproda said, he heard from his sergeant that the Coast Guard sent each terminal a report on the incident that said the authorities found a weapon in the car.

"When I heard that I thought, ‘I’m sure glad backup happened quickly,’" Aproda said. "This time it worked out pretty good. We were able to control them with just our presence and authority."

—Steve Stallone