Survival Options
Hostage Survival & Escape

Hostage Survival & Escape Options: Pawns, Ransoms, and Slaves

"You don't know how many home invasion scenes we walk in on where the people are sitting there all tied up and all dead. There'll be four, five people, a family, maybe some guests: enough to put up a fight. And you know they let themselves get tied up. You just know the guys said, 'We just want to tie you up. We won't hurt you.' You'd think the people would realize - why do they want to tie us up if they don't want to hurt us? But they bought it."
Quote from a Chicago homicide detective interviewed in Connie Fletcher's "What Cops Know."

The Lie You Want to Believe for Survival
When someone is told a lie they desperately want to believe for survival, they will believe it – as when a captor tells a captive, “Do what I say and I won’t hurt you.” But anyone who threatens violence is likely, after all, to use violence.

Kevin Bright, 19, and his sister Kathryn, 21, arrived home to find a man waiting in a bedroom. "He said, 'Hold it right there,' " Bright recalled. "He had a gun on him. He told us he wasn't going to hurt us." He said he wanted their car. “He wasn't nervous. He was what I describe as methodical," Bright said. "He had a plan, and he was carrying it out. He was getting us under control by saying he wouldn't hurt us." ... The man eventually forced Kevin to help tie his sister up. Then, in another room, he tied up Kevin... gently. But then, he said, the man started to strangle him with knotted nylons. At one point, Bright was able to break loose and got up on his feet. "He pulled the gun out of his waistband and was raising it up to shoot," Bright said. "I grabbed a hold of it. I turned it toward his stomach." Bright said he got his finger on the trigger. "I clicked it twice, and it didn't go off," he said. "He pulled it away from me, and that's when he shot me -- the first time." ... One bullet hit Bright near his right temple. Another went through his mouth and knocked out three side teeth. A third bullet just grazed his skin. At one point, Bright lay there as if he was dead. He remembers the man moving to the other room where he murdered Kathryn.
Excerpted from The Kansas City Star – 02 March 2005 [Kevin Bright was the only person known to survive an attack by Dennis Rader of Wichita KS – the self-proclaimed BTK: Bind, Torture, Kill serial killer.

The couple were preparing dinner when two men entered through an unlocked rear sliding glass door and started kicking and punching the two, and bound their hands with cords. ... "The first thing I think is I have to leave a space between my hands,'' he said… "I pretended I was sick and vomiting while freeing his hands. "So the second guy holding a gun put it down and tied up my wife. Then I stand up behind him and grab the gun. I said `I've got the gun! I will shoot you!' to make them scared.'' ... One of the thieves fled. "The other one was hiding behind a wall and I said, 'I've got the gun! Come here!' and he came out and put two hands on the back of his head'.'' Then the robber grabbed for the weapon and they fell to the ground, wrestling for survival control. "Then my wife freed herself and grabbed two knives and is screaming 'I kill you! I kill you!' and he saw my wife had the knife and he ran away. ... ''He also described why he felt compelled to risk his life by grabbing the loaded shotgun. "I know the reason they not cover their face - after they finish they will kill us.''
Excerpted from The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – 22 May 2006

Sometimes, hostages emerge unscathed, suffering only survival trauma, scratches and bruises. But, without a crystal ball, the victims can’t predict if the criminal will simply rob and leave or, if not wearing a mask, he’ll kill all eyewitnesses. The criminal may originally plan only to rob, but if he decides to bind his victims to ensure his getaway – he may realize he now has absolute god-like control and, savoring a power-frenzy, torture his victims to death.

On the other hand, these victims achieved survival unharmed – other than emotional scarring:

She's fearing the same men who put a gun to her and her fiancé's head may return. "They kept on saying that over and over, 'Do you want to die today? Don't look at me.' " ... The woman says she tried not to look as three men robbed her, taking her engagement ring and cash after tying up her fiancé. "They got him, put a gun up against his head, a gun up against my head and tied him up, covered his face up and took me out of the room." ... The couple had just gotten home from a night out and noticed a car pull up and turn their lights out on their street. Thinking it was someone they knew, one of them went to the side door and peeked out. That's when the three men rushed them. Police say they're surprised by the violence. "That's a very quiet neighborhood…" ... "We both could have died that night. We got lucky we didn't." The couple is lucky to be alive but so terrified they're moving, fearing they will always be afraid of who's knocking on their door.
Excerpted from WTVD/TV11 Durham NC – 26 August 2004

Richard R. Mayer had just fallen asleep when Terry Pettigrew and Mark Bowden walked through an unlocked door. “All of a sudden, I woke up and there’s this guy poking me, telling me to, ‘Get up, you son of a bitch,’” Mayer said. The second man was standing behind Mayer and hit him over the head with Mayer’s golf putter.... One of the men revealed a large revolver and demanded money, Mayer said, and he led them to a jar of coins and casino chips. “The little guy was saying, ‘Let’s just shoot him. The big guy said no because the last time they did this, they didn’t have to shoot the guy.” The robbers then tied him up with an electrical cord.
Excerpted from The Western Nevada County Union (CA) – 08 September 2004

The robbery occurred at 3:15 p.m. in the upscale neighborhood. The teenage boys had returned home from a day of classes. Their mother was at work. There was a knock on the door. When the younger boy answered, one of the robbers pointed a handgun at him and both men forced their way inside. They tied up the boys, took items from the home and left without harming the boys.
Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee - 28 May 2006

The owner of a home was approached while arriving home from work. Police say he and his wife were bound with duct tape and their house robbed while at gunpoint. Police say, "It can happen anywhere.”
Excerpted from WREG-TV3 Memphis - 22 March 2007

82-year-old Dora Bryant and 80-year-old Lawrence Bryant were gardening in their front yard when a man threatened them with a knife and forced them behind the house, where he beat them both. He forced the couple inside the home and continued to beat them. The suspect bound their hands with duct tape and forced Dora Bryant into a closet, blocking the door with a dresser. He then took Lawrence Bryant around the house in search of valuables. The suspect eventually took off with cash and jewelry.
Excerpted from The Virginia Gazette – 26 May 2007

Victim’s Options in a Hostage Situation – use your survival Intuition to choose:
• Posturing will unlikely intimidate an armed hostage-taker.
• Fleeing – the sooner the better. Anyone escaping might soon bring the police. He may just flee.
• Outsmarting – choose a ploy that you can use.
• Surrendering puts you fully at the mercy of a criminal. However, your intuition may tell you to submit.
• Fighting is to attack him with the passionate intent to fully disable him. This also breaks the spellbound fear paralysis and creates chaos to allow at least one victim to run for help.

Newberry County SC – The father says, "The front door busted open and three guys come in with guns – hit me in the eye with the butt of the gun. They got me on the floor and just kept asking, 'Where's the money?' I said, 'I don't got no money.'" "He said, 'Is it really worth dying over having no money?' ... Terrified, the man's wife hid. Her daughter with cerebral palsy was also attacked. "They tied her up, busted her head and broke her arm. All I could think was how could I get help? If I hadn't got out, I feel we would all be dead. I really do." ... At that point, the mother ran. "When I ran out that door all I could hear was my daughter screaming, knowing I had to leave her behind. It was terrible. I didn't know if they'd be alive when I got back with help." ... The man the mother sought for help called 911 and grabbed a shotgun. He said when he confronted the suspects, they ran to a van. "I aimed toward the van and shot one time with a shotgun and they took off."
Excerpted from WIS-TV (SC) – 08 January 2008

See: Door Reinforcement.

Possibly the Best Response

In a home invasion, three men with clubs forced their way into a home, but didn't realize seven people were inside. When the crooks tried to tie up one of the residents, the others began to fight back. Two of the thugs were stabbed and one nearly lost a finger and an ear to a meat cleaver. When police arrived, they found one of the injured robbers being held by the victims.
Excerpted from The Calgary Sun (Canada) – 23 January 2003

Although survival of life-and-death crises allow no guarantees, possibly the best response to a hostage crime – following your Intuition – is to refuse to be bound, and instead surprise him with a sudden, furious survival attack. The sooner you act the better. If one of you does act, the others had better immediately join in, or create chaos – such as fleeing while yelling, “I’m getting our neighbor the cop." Destroy his control and spur him to flee!

Just before 4 a.m., Jean and Kevin McDonough woke to their daughter’s muffled cries. When they reached her room, a burly man wearing a black mask was holding a knife to the 15-year-old’s throat. Though smaller than the attacker, the family stopped him. The father held the intruder in a headlock as the mother wrested the knife from him and the daughter called police. For about five minutes until police arrived, the family overwhelmed serial killer Adam Leroy Lane.
Excerpted from The Winston-Salem Journal (NC) – 09 September 2007

A panic-button/siren and/or the Safe Room could well be a lifesaver in such survival situations. Setting off an alarm – and/or escaping to a Safe Room to call police on a cell-phone – would destroy the criminal’s advantage of seclusion.

Sanford Strong, SWAT team instructor and author of “Strong on Defense” maintains that any victim fleeing is a powerful survival deterrent to the crime scene getting worse. If he reacts by killing any of his hostages, then he probably had been inclined all along to kill them. Running away is not abandoning the other victims. It’s perhaps the best way of saving them. Even a husband leaving his wife in dire straits, or a parent leaving a child – gut wrenching and unnatural as that may feel – is probably the most viable survival option in a horrific situation. Discuss this unpleasant survival subject with your loved ones now to be prepared – just in case. Teach children that their job is to run outside for help.

In hostage situations, you can expect the initial assault to be very violent. Comply with the captors so you'll survive. Keep your mind active to lessen shock and help you spot opportunities for escape. Know that the rescue will be violent, too. "That's a time to keep your head down. Don't be a hero. And don't try to help the rescuers. They'll tend to shoot at anything that moves,” said Ron Haskins, Department of Homeland Security terrorism expert.
Excerpted from The Seattle Times – 22 February 2005

Military survival schools teach that a hostage’s greatest danger is hopelessness. Planning an escape/survival strategy gives a sense of hope. The first part of that planning is befriending and cooperating with your captors so they’ll be less likely to kill you. The second part is always calmly testing the limits of how far they’ll allow you stray beyond their control – toward an escape opportunity. The optimal mindset is neutral – not despairing over your plight, but rather hoping and planning for survival.

Perhaps you can avoid being taken hostage altogether by learning how best to avoid Kidnapping.

See all worst-case scenarios:
• Survival Options - Overview of the do-or-die realities of worst-case crises.
• Shooting Rampage: seven options for surviving.
• Hostage Taking: the slightest edge makes all the difference in survival.
• Hostage Escape (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE): optimizing hostage survival and escape.
• Kidnapping avoidance and prevention.
• Kidnap Escape: optimizing kidnap survival and escape.
• SOS Distress Signals for summoning help in all situations.
• Surviving the Worst: options for the worst of the worst-case scenarios.
• Recap of Survival Options.
• Pepper Spray & Devices.

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