When I see a movie about kidnappers, I always wonder why we have so few famous ones nowadays. (or actually ever) Here I am not talking about fathers kidnapping their own kids, but like millionaires, actors, businessmen,etc. When the kidnappers are after big money.... The last big case was like what?, back in the 70s??? So is it just too hard of a business? Whenever I have to hear about Paris or Lindsay, I always wish somebody would kidnap them... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Here is a list of the recent ones, there is nothing in this decade: (except the planned Letterman kid) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...kidnappings_of_celebrities_or_their_relatives
There are kidnappings all the time but the media won't tell you about them. Another reason is that many times the woman/man who are kidnapped aren't really wanted by the other person and they don't care what happens to them. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
One of the latest ones that I read about was like 5 years ago, when a fund manager got kidnapped. He actually talked the guys out of it eventually....
I guess when a famous rich person gets kidnapped they'd rather just pay the ransom quickly and shove it under the rug than have it blown up into a worldwide media frensy. Then they hire Agent 47 to recover the cash.
Yes indeed. People who are rich and famous don't bother dealing with the cops. Cops have to play by the rules.
I suspect that it is more that criminals know that in the US, kidnapping for money is borderline suicidal. You have to open a line of communication if you wany the cash, and that is a lead for law enforcement to follow. Not a good idea since they also know that the first thing the local cops will do is call in the FBI. Then of course you have to either pick up the cash or have it electronically transfered. Both of which are potential leads. And really nasty prison terms if you get caught. The Federal government takes a very dim view of kidnapping. Too many kidnappings in the past have ended up with the victim dead. A whole lot safer (and profitable) to knock over a liquor store, I would think.
And we don't even hear about it 2 years later? No. It just doesn't happen... Yeah, and how much money a liquor store has? Maybe 2K???? Think about the risk/reward ratio....
Yes, risk/reward ratio is very high. Anyone who does that is by definition stupid. Yet liquor stores get knocked over very often. Most criminals are stupid. A smart and capable person can make a living without resorting to crime, or can get into crime with very low risk/reward ratio, like securities fraud. I suspect anyone smart enough to pull off a kidnapping of a millionaire in US nowadays is also smart enough to pull off a scam which does not get you nearly as much jail time.
Well, if it was for me, I would rather try 1 kidnapping and retire, than rsiking being shot several times for small money. You have to remember the personal risk, not just the penalty. And as you said, most criminals are dumb, so why they don't TRY it anyway? After all stupidity never stopped them to rob banks or whatever... I mean really, in a country of 300 million, not 1 famous kidnapping for a decade???
Here is the latest one that I heard of, pretty interesting story: "Then in January, 2003, at the height of the negotiations, Lampert was leaving ESL on a Friday night when he was kidnapped in the parking garage. Four hoodlums, led by a 23-year-old ex-Marine, had targeted Lampert after a search for rich people on the Internet. They stuffed him into a Ford Expedition, took him to a cheap motel, and held him bound in the bathtub. They called Lampert's wife, Kinga, playing a tape of his voice. Court documents are sealed, but one person close to the case says the men told Lampert they had been hired to kill him for $5 million but would let him go for $1 million. Lampert was convinced he was going to be killed, he says in his first public comments on the kidnapping case. "Your imagination goes absolutely wild. I was thinking about my mother and my son and my wife. What would their lives be like? Would it be painful when they shot me?" In the adjoining room, he recalls, the television was switched on to the news about the search for the body of Laci Peterson. But as the kidnappers became increasingly nervous, Lampert convinced them that if they let him go, he would pay them $40,000 a couple of days later, the source says. The hoodlums let him off on the side of a road in Greenwich early on that Sunday morning and were later arrested and convicted. Lampert arrived home to a house full of friends who had been camping out, waiting for news. "It was very much like going to your own funeral," he says. " ----------- With estimated net worth of $3.8 billion, the richest man in Connecticut, which is saying something.
I think this kind of sums up the (lack of) intelligence, (lack of) preparedness, and (lack of) ruthlessness of these losers.
Aren't there a lot in Central/South America? Maybe there aren't as many in the US because we fight paying, while other countries have learned to immediately pony up the dough.
You posted a list of recent kidnappings - notice how none of the ones from civilized countries ended with the criminals escaping with the money? You can only get away with it in countries that are corrupt or chaotic enough that the police won't make a serious effort to find you (either because they don't care, or because your gorilla friends control half the countryside, or because you can simply pay them off to leave you alone). As other people have pointed out, for the risk and hassle involved in kidnapping someone rich/fameous and getting away with it, you could probably make a lot more money doing something less risky.
Really? Please list it, where do I get a few millions quick with less risk than a kidnapping??? I actually pointed out the opposite... One reason could be that lots of famous people are followed constantly by the papparazzi, thus making a kidnapping execute secretly difficult. Again, if the US has the most millionaires with one of the highest crimerate, how come that this particular type of crime is so rare?
I think the truth we're drilling down to is this. Famous people are indeed kidnapped. The kidnappings do not become famous because they are handled without media attention.
