Casillo's night started aboard his newly repaired, bright-yellow personal watercraft in Jamaica Bay. It broke down just outside of the airport's approach.
"I looked around. No lights, no boats, nothing. No noise. Just pitch black," Casillo said.
With no idea what to do, Casillo spotted the lighted control tower in the distance. He left the water scooter and embarked on a three-mile swim to reach land. Still wearing his life jacket, Casillo then hiked through a muddy marsh when he reached a chain-link, barbed-wire fence.
"I just made the decision: I'm going to have to get found. I'm going to take it upon myself to get over this fence to get seen. Something has to happen," Casillo said.
Cold and disoriented, Casillo climbed the 8-foot fence, but nothing happened. Despite climbing the fence and violating the law, Casillo remained undetected and headed toward the control tower.
"That was the only thing lit up that I could go to," Casillo said.
Casillo walked across two runways past security, cameras and motion detectors that the airport recently paid millions of dollars to install.
"I figured I was going to be on cameras," he said, "that somebody is going to pick me up and maybe a helicopter is going to come or a police car."
Still unnoticed and wearing his life jacket, Casillo entered Delta's Terminal 3, dripping wet when he finally walked up to a cargo worker.
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