Does kidnap for ransom happen often?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
The ransom was the stay away.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Wrong answer.

Wrong again, Judge Judy; the stay away was the extortion.

[SlowwHand]

Ah HA! Tricked you, buzzard breath!

So I was right.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Yeah, I'd say it's basically that it's alot harder to get away with in the first world. It's too easy to track someone down in our societies - in the developing world, huge chunks of the population are totally off the radar.

I'd say it's very easy to get away in the US of A.

I reckon the hard part is to get your hands on the $$$, as you need to assume that the police has been informed.

I don't think the FBI gets involved either, unless the suspects flee across state border.

[Lancer]

I've heard it happens in Manila.

[SlowwHand]

Maybe someone will get you, then it's their problem.

[Mr. Harley]

I belief kidnapping is a federal crime, and the FBI can be involved from the get go. One of the biggest problems is spending the ransom, even hard cash leaves a trail unless you are willing to sit on it for years, or leave the country.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


I'd say it's very easy to get away in the US of A.

I reckon the hard part is to get your hands on the $$$, as you need to assume that the police has been informed.

I don't think the FBI gets involved either, unless the suspects flee across state border.

The FBI is involved in a number of areas of criminality which don't cross state lines, kidnapping and bank robbery being the most common.

[molly bloom]

It happened to the Gettys:

Son's kidnapping horror

The second came two years later, when Sir Paul's eldest son Paul, then 17, was kidnapped by Italian terrorists, who demanded a ransom of more than $3m.

The boy's grandfather refused to help pay the ransom, believing it would endanger his other grandchildren.

He relented only when the kidnappers cut off Paul's ear and sent it to the family.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2956897.stm

And it used to be popular in Corsica and Sardinia, as I recall:

Criminal gangs in Italy have found that the kidnapping of children is particularly profitable. In July 1975, eighteen-year-old Cristina Mazzotti was kidnapped; a ransom of $2 million was paid, but the kidnappers killed her just the same. Another father stood firm for six weeks when his seventeen-year-old daughter was kidnapped, but paid a ransom of $4 million when they threatened to kidnap his other daughter as well. And in 1977 à $2 million ransom was paid for a five-year-old Italian girl kidnapped on her way to school in Geneva.

http://www.self-defender.net/extras/kidnap.htm

[VetLegion]

The Getty thing - the true story is the kid made a deal with "kidnappers", was a part of the organization, but they turned on him. It was in a documentary some time ago.

[Heerscher]

I watched a program on national television yesterday. A criminal expert said this sort of kidnappings happen on a regular basis in the criminal circuit. A criminal steals another criminal's coke, the victim kidnaps the daughter of the thief and extorts him for the stolen coke. These crimes don't come to light often. The criminal who's coke is stolen won't go to the police, because that would be kinda stupid. "Officer they stole my 300 kilo's of coke! It's an outrage!"

The big question on everybody's mind right now is: is the Melchers family (the are known as rich industrials with an untarnished reputation) connected to the criminal circuit in which these kinds of kidnappings happen?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
I doubt your average hundred millionaire has any personal security.

I don't. Millionaries may not, and I've known a few who didn't. But there are quite a few who do, and not just celebraties.

Remember what happened to the heiress to the of the Wrigley fortune.

[Flubber]

The problem is making the contact to get the cash. Someone that was an absolute expert in international banking might be able to wire money around electronically to a zillion places such that it couldn't be tracked but I am not such an expert so I don't know for sure. Part of me thinks that the authorities will be able to track that down (although you might get little sympathy or assistance from some overseas banks

If the ransom is actual cash, I would think that there would be some form of GPS locator in it. I believe those things can get pretty small so I would think that kidnappers would be tracked

[Donegeal]

About 2-3 years ago, we had a kidnapping for ransom in my county. This guy came over from Europe (I think it was Finland ) and kidnapped an 82 year old woman and help her for $3,000,000 in a metal shed for over a week in freezing temps. He only occasionally fed her some water and fries for the entire time. She ended up loosing a foot (I think) to gangrene. When they rescued her and caught him the judge felt it was only fair to hold him for a 3 mil dollar bond. He was convicted and is currently sitting on a 30 year truth in sentencing sentence and he is going to be deported when he gets released.

[chequita guevara]

[Drake Tungsten]

The kidnapping came a month after customs authorities seized 10,000 pounds of cocaine in the Port of Rotterdam, in one of the largest drug busts by Dutch authorities.

What are Dutch authorities doing making a drug bust?