Survive or Subvert a Kidnaping

Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart and Patti Hearst made it home to their families. Yet their fate, and the fate of any of the 10,000 people kidnapped each year, according to numbers reported by The Foreign Policy Center, could easily be death. While their kidnappings made headlines and their survival instincts during captivity showed their resilience, they beat the odds for those kidnapped by strangers.

Kidnappers rarely nab a stray child or force a woman into a trunk on a whim during trip to the grocery store or a walk in the park; theirs is rarely a crime of sheer opportunity. The best way to survive a kidnapping is to fight for your life, and adopting some of the most effective techniques is easier than you might think.

Step 1

Act confident and authoritative whenever you're in public. This affectation will reduce your appeal as a kidnap target; unless, of course, you are specifically targeted (because of your political office or affiliation, family's finances or are a militant group's sacrificial lamb) for kidnapping (as an opportunity to make a political statement or secure a hefty ransom). Maintaining a strong public facade requires showing indifference to passersby, continually surveying your surroundings, and seeing your safety as your first priority. You never know who may be looking for a distracted target or to spot a hint of vulnerability.

Step 2

Keep your distance and your cool. Maintain more than an arm's reach between you and strangers, whenever physically possible. Your commitment to maintaining this distance will dictate your answer to common pleas from street hustlers and homeless: How can you give her a dollar if you aren't getting close enough to touch her hand? You don't owe anyone anything more than common courtesy, "please," "excuse me," "thank you," and the like. Keep your tone civil, but not welcoming. Kidnappers, and other street criminals, tend to test potential targets' willingness to engage a stranger. Doing so exposes a trusting soul, an easy mark. Don't help find any dogs or help anyone to a car.

Step 3

Create a scene. If grabbed, whether in a parking garage, on the street or walking into your house, go crazy. Yell, flail, fight; scream obscenities or shout "Fire," do anything in your power to draw attention to the situation. Make sure anyone within earshot knows you need help and need it immediately. The U.S. Defense Department Web site confirms that the best way to survive a kidnapping is to resist during the initial abduction attempt. Most kidnappers will flee the scene if you draw enough attention to the assault.

Step 4

Impede your kidnapper's escape and never move to another location. You are at far greater risk for enduring physical and emotional harm, even torture, when you are sequestered alone with your captor in a venue of his choosing. If you're kidnapped in a car, look to slam your foot on the gas or brake and cause a collision. This will draw attention and authorities to the scene and rattle your captor. If you're lucky, you'll cause enough damage to the vehicle that the assailant will flee on foot.

Go completely limp if your captor attempts to lift or pull you into a car; maneuvering dead weight, of even an average-sized person (150 pounds) feels like lugging a 150 pounds of fine sand, and a constantly shifting distribution of weight.

Step 5

Call your kidnapper's bluff, before she drags you to a secluded spot and keeps you at her mercy (think "Deliverance"). Flashing a gun in a public place is most often used as a means of coercion. During a kidnapping it means, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," and the hard way involves a bullet. Yet, pulling the trigger in an populated area all but guarantees that the cops get called to the scene; then a simple kidnapping escalates to a hostage situation and standoff with police. Most likely that isn't what your kidnapper had in mind, and they will hesitate to shoot you and risk triggering gunshots drawing the cops.

Step 6

So, run. The odds of escaping without taking a bullet are in your favor. Even officers from the New York and Los Angeles Police Departments only hit an average of 31 percent of moving targets, even when firing from close range, according to a 2008 New York Times article on police gunfire. And some of the hit percentages came from shooting cats, dogs and people in the process of committing suicide. According the Department of Justice, the likelihood that the kidnapper will pull the trigger in a populated area (like a park, neighborhood or shopping center) is only 12 percent.

Step 7

Keep talking and appeal to the kidnapper's self-interest. This is a classic tactic of power and strategy. Proposing a more advantageous outcome for the kidnapper--money, a plane ticket or a promise not to contact the cops or press charges--may convince the perp to walk away, rather than face a stiffer charge. Talking also helps personalize you and, if you're lucky, may make it harder for the kidnapper to violate or kill you. Keep your perspective here; it is unlikely that pleas for pity will endear you to your captor. Talk of kids, loved ones or pets may only remind your abductor that no one loves him now or ever and he has nothing to lose, or how much pleasure he will take destroying the life of one who would lose much.

Source: Net