Why the way you walk could make you a target for crime

The way you walk could make you a target for crime, an ex-secret service agent has revealed. Evy Poumpouras, a former Secret Service agent who protected Presidents Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush, shared the eye-opening information with podcaster Steven Bartlett. Poumpouras, who received a US Secret Service Medal of Valor for her heroism on 9/11, served in the Secret Service for 12 years and was on presidential detail for various leaders. In the resurfaced 52-second-clip from The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Poumpouras explained why changing the way you walk could save your life, citing a study.

The former agent, who started her career under President Bill Clinton, explained that the study recorded people walking in New York City, taking the footage and playing it to convicted felons in prison. She then explained that they asked all the criminals who they would pick as prey from the video. 'They all picked the same people to prey on - all the same people, just by the walk,' she explained. Poumpour as said they categorized the people into three different types of walks: one as 'sloppy,' another as insecure, and the third as confident. 'One walk was: "I'm walking, I'm sloppy, I'm not playing attention, I'm just in my own space. I have really no deliberate purpose in the way I'm moving my body,"' she shared.

Poumpouras labeled this kind of walk a target, declaring them 'easy prey.' She said the second kind of walk was also easy prey. '[The second] walk is small, more timid, "I'm kind of not comfortable, I'm not paying attention,"' she described. According to the ex-secret service agent, these two types of people were picked by all the convicted felons as people they would attack, 'bar none.' Poumpouras then went on reveal who they wouldn't pick to attack - and that was deliberate walkers.

'[They didn't pick people] whose walks weren't sloppily big, weren't too small, it was right in the middle, deliberate,' she described. '"I'm in control of my body, I'm looking around, I'm present, I own my space,"' she listed. 'That person, I want nothing to do with. Those group of people were not picked to be targets,' she shared. In the lengthy discussion, Poumpouras also shared her top tips on how to spot a liar and how to get anyone to do whatever you want.

The ex-agent - who spent eight years conducting polygraph tests - revealed the biggest mistakes people made and the one phrase that automatically meant you were guilty as she shared how to use the skills she was taught in the Secret Service in your everyday life. She explained that the biggest mistake people often made when fibbing was talking too much.

Poumpouras noted that to spot a liar, you needed to first find their baseline, which is someone's usual pattern of behavior. She said if they tend to make eye contact and avoid it when a certain topic is brought up it tends to mean they are lying. Poumpouras noted that you need to tune in on what caused them to change their baseline and that is how you will discover they are lying. The former Secret Service agent also shared the one phrase that was often a 'red flag.' 'One of the things I have heard a lot of guilty people say is, "I swear to God,"' she said. She noted that when people brought 'religion into it,' she immediately thought they committed the crime.