A falcon swooped on a man lunching on a sandwich in central Japan last month and snatched the rest of the sandwich without missing a beat, a video published Friday showed.
Minh Nguyen Anh had just sat down to a solo lunch in Shimoda city Apr. 14 and bitten off a portion of it when the falcon flew past him, snatching the rest of the sandwich from his grasp, the video, published on Storyful, showed. “All of a sudden a big giant bird snatched it away from me,” he told Storyful. (RELATED: ‘Punched In The Back Of The Head’: Aggressive Hawk Attacks Construction Workers, Interrupts Mail Delivery)
A falcon snatched this man’s food in one swoop. pic.twitter.com/coqDtln7ga
— New York Post (@nypost) May 3, 2024
“This is a falcon. You could have really gotten hurt. You’re lucky it was so precise,” someone reacted on social media, according to Storyful.
“Dude he is lucky he didn’t get a miscalculation by one of those talons,” a commenter similarly reacted to the video, which the New York Post republished.
Some others were skeptical.
“Laughing at anyone that thinks this wasn’t staged. like 90% of what’s on X,” one commenter said in response to the NYPost video.
“Why would he be filming himself at that exact angle eating at that point?” another said.
It was not clear why Nguyen Anh’s lunchtime was being filmed. Shimoda, located on the Izu peninsula in Japan‘s Shizuoka Prefecture, is mountainous, which is apparent in the video. The Izu peninsula is one of the 213 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geoparks in the world. The Eurasian kestrel and peregrine falcon are two birds of prey from the falcon family found in Shimoda, according to Avibase, an ornithology database. The falcon seen snatching Nguyen Anh’s lunch resembles both birds.