The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is a tech industry term that sounds innocuous, but its existence has some serious implications for our security and privacy. IoT devices are ordinary objects or appliances with embedded sensors, computer processors, and communication modules — WiFi-connected cars, smart picture frames, internet-connected thermostats, and so on. These devices offer some conveniences, but they've also become more invasive and prone to security vulnerabilities. You might be concerned about someone hacking your computer or phone, but you probably hadn't thought about someone hacking your smart fridge. A powerful example of this comes from California, where new digital license plates — promoted as an optional upgrade — were legalized by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2022. A few months after release, California's electronic license plate system has already been hacked, allowing hackers to track GPS location, access the owner's personal info, change text on the plate, and more. They could even flag the vehicle as stolen, which could prompt police to conduct a high-intensity felony stop.
Screenshot via Reviver.com
The Electronic License Plate Hack
Above: Reviver's product page touts “control in the palm of your hand” by using the mobile app to customize your RPlate.
Luckily, the hackers in this case were benevolent “white hats” who had no intention of using this vulnerability to cause chaos. Instead, they immediately reported the vulnerability (likely for a large cash bounty) to Reviver, the company that sells and manages the new RPlate electronic license plates. Reviver reportedly patched the flaw within 24 hours. After an internal investigation, the company claimed that it had never been used maliciously and that no user data had been leaked to the public.
Above: This privacy promise from Reviver seems rather ironic given the recent cybersecurity revelations.
Even though a cybersecurity disaster was narrowly averted in this case, it's certainly concerning to learn how serious the vulnerability was. Security researcher Sam Curry explained that a Javascript flaw in Reviver's web site allowed his team to switch their account access level from that of a standard user to a “super administrator.” Once they had admin access, they could…
Access personal information of any electronic plate owner, including vehicles owned, physical address, phone number, and email address
Remotely track the GPS location of any electronic license plate
Delete license plates from the system
Add new license plates to the system
Replace the dealer logo on temporary tags for new cars
Change the custom text line at the bottom of the plate
Update the status of any electronic plate to “STOLEN,” which might potentially lead police to stop the driver at gunpoint
Above: Under normal circumstances, the ability to mark a plate as “STOLEN” instantly might seem beneficial. In this case, it almost became a huge safety issue.
A Growing Cybersecurity Problem
This isn't even close to the only serious vulnerability documented by Sam Curry in his blog post, Web Hackers vs. The Auto Industry. He also showed web backdoors that affected a staggering list of automakers, including Kia, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Infiniti, Nissan, Acura, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, and even Ferrari. Many of these included the ability to “remote lock, unlock, engine start, engine stop, precision locate, flash headlights, and honk” using only the vehicle's publicly-visible VIN number.
Photo via Reviver
In the past, hackers have also demonstrated the ability to remotely turn off vehicles that are already in motion, which could lead to a serious crash.
Auto industry aside, the state of California is no stranger to glaring cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Last summer, the CA Department of Justice confirmed that the personal data of everyone who was granted or denied a concealed-carry weapon permit between 2011 and 2021 had been leaked. This info included “names, date of birth, gender, race, driver's license number, addresses, and criminal history.” This leak affected nearly a quarter-million Californians, including judges and police officers, possibly making these individuals a target for home invasion robberies and other crimes.
Talk is Cheap
In almost every case, the affected companies or governing bodies have been quick to apologize and assure everyone it was an isolated incident. But it's clear that these hacks will continue happening unless those responsible for our data spend the time and money to make cybersecurity a much higher priority.
In the meantime, we encourage you to weigh the pros and cons carefully before adding more IoT smart devices to your home (or garage).
Whether you're going hunting, heading out for some target practice at the range, or loading up for an emergency situation, it's a good idea to keep your gear in a hard case. This ensures your guns, ammo, tools, and other equipment will make it to the destination safely. But all hard cases are not created equal — the best cases have organizational systems that can be configured to prevent gear from sliding around in transit. Most of the time, this means “pick and pluck” foam that can be cut or torn out to fit the outline of your gear, but that's a one-way process. If you change your loadout after you cut the foam, you'll need to buy new foam. Magpul recently announced a new modular rifle case organization system for Pelican, Plano, and other hard cases known as the Magpul DAKA Grid organizer.
The Magpul DAKA Grid case organizer consists of three pieces. It starts with a thin layer of bottom foam to provide cushioning, and tops this with a middle layer containing a grid of equidistant holes. Included sets of 10 double and 10 triple blocks can be inserted into these holes like pegs to create any layout you need. Best of all, they can be reconfigured in seconds if you want to change the layout.
Magpul says that additional expansion sets will be offered for the DAKA Grid in the future, including:
Angled blocks to fill atypical gaps
V blocks to support barrels, bows, fishing rods, and other narrow items
Tie-down straps to secure items onto the grid
Organizational containers for small items
Currently, the DAKA Grid system is only available for two gun cases, the Pelican Vault V730 and V800. However, Magpul's announcement video mentions that models will also be available for the Pelican 1720 and 1750, the Plano AW2 42″ case, and a new DAKA rifle case manufactured by Magpul itself (coming soon). You can read more about the Magpul DAKA rifle case line, available in 35, 44, and 53-inch sizes, here.
MSRP for the DAKA Grid system is $140 for Vault V730, and $160 for Vault V800. Block expansion kits (6 additional double-blocks and 6 triple-blocks) will be $30, but they're currently marked “coming soon.” The remaining case systems and accessories are expected to be available later in 2023. For more information, check out the video below or go to Magpul.com.
When someone mentions “urban survival,” what comes to mind? For many, that term evokes images of wandering alone through a barren, dystopian landscape like those seen in I Am Legend or The Walking Dead. But the reality of urban survival is much more practical — it's about finding a way to live in a densely-populated, fully-functioning metropolis while avoiding confrontations with other residents or authorities. The so-called stealth camping movement is an interesting approach to this everyday form of urban survival. One YouTube content creator known as Stories from a Van filmed a 15-minute video showing how he lives comfortably under the radar in his innocuous-looking Nissan NV200 panel van.
Evan, the man behind Stories from a Van, says he built this Nissan NV200 with help from his father, a carpenter. Aside from a small vent and some low-profile solar panels on top, it appears to be a completely normal delivery or utility van from the outside. These small vans are common in cities, so no one will bat an eye at it, unlike a larger 10-passenger or Sprinter van.
The build began by insulating the interior and adding a layer of vinyl to cover the insulation. Custom wood cabinets were built across the full length of the van's floor, offering storage space as well as some surprises like the shower pan and drain in the center compartment. A folded foam mattress serves as Evan's bed, and a simple Igloo cooler acts as his refrigerator.
At the back of the van, there's a sink concealed underneath the desk surface, along with a clever U-shaped drawer that makes use of the dead space around the sink. The lighting on the ceiling and power outlets are connected to a custom electrical system Evan built. It includes onboard batteries linked to the solar panels as well as a charge controller hooked up to the van's engine for cloudy days.
The rear of the van also contains a custom plumbing system with two fresh water containers and a gray water tank underneath the body. There's clearly a lot of thought put into this setup, and we appreciate how truly discreet this stealth camping van looks. Check out the full video walkthrough below:
On the hierarchy of resources required for survival, clean water is near the top. As the old adage goes, humans may survive as little as three minutes without air, three hours without shelter (in extreme climates), and three days without water. But even if you have access to a nearby lake or stream, there's a high likelihood the water is contaminated by microorganisms that will make you violently ill. To avoid this, you'll need to purify the water first. British water purifier company LifeSaver, whose products we've reviewed in the past, recently launched a new compact purifier called the LifeSaver Wayfarer — the company's smallest and lightest device yet.
The LifeSaver Wayfarer is designed to fit easily into a pocket or small backpack, and weighs only 11.4 ounces. As with other LifeSaver products, it's made in Britain and tested to exceed NSF/ANSI P231 standards for removal of bacteria, protozoan cysts, and viruses. It also removes chemicals, microplastics, heavy metals, and unpleasant taste/odor from water. Additionally, the Wayfarer features the company's FailSafe technology that cuts off water flow once the filter reaches the end of its lifespan, ensuring contaminated water won't pass through.
The Wayfarer consists of a black polymer housing with a retractable pump handle, inlet tube, and outlet tube. The 4.2-foot scavenger hose is connected to the inlet, then placed into a body of water; the integrated float keeps it from sinking to the bottom. A shorter clean water hose connects to the outlet, and can be placed into your water bottle or hydration bladder. Pumping the handle forces water up through the first-stage ultrafiltration (UF) cartridge and second-stage activated carbon disc. Both components are replaceable — the cartridge lasts for up to 5,000 liters, and the disc lasts for up to 100 liters.
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the LifeSaver Wayfarer will retail at an MSRP of $105. Many purifiers in the sub-$100 price range are made in China with questionable testing standards or no mention of lab testing at all. So, the Wayfarer seems like a solid value in comparison.
LifeSaver says the Wayfarer will become available on February 1st, 2023, but it's currently available for preorder. we're looking forward to seeing it in person later this month at SHOT Show. For more updates, keep an eye on IconLifeSaver.com.
Catfishing: a security term most commonly used online when a bad actor (criminal) lures prospective victims to give money by pretending to be someone else. — My dad was a baby boomer born in 1946. At age 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served a 13-month term in Vietnam. Dad was very proud of his “service to his country.” He wore the hats and pins that immediately identified him as a proud veteran and would often suggest that debit cards and the internet were a means of social control. Even with all his suspicions, he never quite appreciated how technology and information could be weaponized against him.
In 2019, my father joined the 21st century and purchased a smartphone. He called me on his new device and said, “Now, do I have to go to the library and checkout a Facebook?” A follow-up question was, “What’s an app?” Needless to say, he was in over his head, but he thought he was entering a new age and would brag about his phone and that he learned to text.
How My Dad Fell Victim to a Catfishing Scam
My dad was the type who visited a local coffee shop where he’d complain about the newer generation and there being too many lawyers and the normal rantings of retired people in small-town America. Some of the waitresses thought it would be funny to install a sassy silver singles app on his phone where he began to get requests to “friend” him. He had no idea why these “old crazy women” were calling him. He brought me his phone and I deleted the app in a flash of wizardry. But what my father and I didn’t know is that key pieces of his information were out there for the bad people to see. My father used his real name and phone number. Well, bad guys like to put that information to good use (for them).
Shortly after deletion, he received separate text messages outside the app on the phone number he plugged into the app. He received a text that went something like, “Hey, I saw you on sassy silver singles and I’m looking to move to your town.” A person reached out to him and started with very innocuous requests like if he could recommend a realtor, or if the schools in his town were nice. This back-and-forth blossomed into a full texting relationship where one individual who appeared to be a younger lady would contact him several times a day. His guard began to drop, and he truly failed to realize how information about him was being compiled. Simple statements that might appear genuine included, “Hey, if you’re married, I don’t want to upset your wife.” He replied that he was divorced, and he lived alone. He added that he retired with a full pension from the local mine, that he had five adult children, and other information that might seem routine in conversation. However, this was all done through texts. His guard clearly dropped the longer this texting relationship continued.
Above: This is the “girl” my dad was talking to. It is unknown at this point if the lady pictured here is involved or if this was a random photo lifted off the internet the actual scammer used. This person may be completely unaware their photo is being used to hustle unsuspecting people.
Techies have a funny acronym for a “girl I met online” defined as Guy In Real Life (G.I.R.L.). But a man in his late 70s had no exposure to such things. “Why me?” he would proclaim. “I’m nobody. She just likes an old man who tells it like they see it.” This “girl” pretended to be from England and discussed relocating to Arizona from the UK. She stated that she was due to inherit 2-million British pounds, and she wanted to move to a warmer climate. Dad passed the names of good realtors and good schools to the “girl.” The British “girl” said she had a 4-year-old daughter, and the duo discussed the pains of moving a child before kindergarten. My father was slowly disarmed by the charm of this “girl.” Dad didn’t have enough exposure to the apps to spot scammers.
On Christmas 2020, dad hadn’t arrived at my cabin, and I called him. He stated that he wasn’t meeting with us for Christmas. He stated that he was going to meet “a special lady who likes me for who I am.” This was the first I’d heard of any plans that they were supposed to meet. I dropped the hammer on him and said, “Let me guess, you told her you’re in room 305 of a hotel and you’re waiting with a pocketful of cash to take her around town.”
Above: Photo of the “girl” and her supposedly sick daughter. Again, it is unknown if the individuals shown in these photos are knowingly part of this scam.
He replied, “YES! I did. If she shows, great. I’m really looking forward to meeting her.” I said in no uncertain terms that he was going to be robbed and beaten for the money he had on his person. I ascertained that she had picked the place, and he checked in and told her the room number. The next knock at the door was going to be a robber and a “get the hell out of there” message for him. In an instant, my father presented as a scared little man. He was fearful of this dream not coming true. I persisted and said the “girl” will claim that she missed her flight and try to set him up for a second attempt. He seemed sad that maybe he had been duped and was quite embarrassed.
Above: Photo of the forged boarding pass that helped accelerate the investigation.
He left the hotel more lonely and somewhat suspicious than when he entered. It bugged him that his son (the lawyer) only saw the negative in people. He went home to spend Christmas alone … he spent too much time alone. The COVID pandemic made life on the elderly especially difficult. They became afraid of younger people who might give them the disease. I could tell he was not at ease and felt foolish. Also, part of him wanted to believe this relationship was real. It had been going on for seven months (tens of thousands of texts) — why would anyone in their right mind engage in so much conversation if they were not genuinely interested in him? Again, he failed to consider the totality of all the information he had given up to this “girl.” This was a man who spent decades performing hard labor. The thought of someone stringing him along served absolutely no human purpose in his mind.
Fatal Consequences
Above & Below: Additional documentation I found that substantiate the travel arrangements and fraudulent attempts to gain access to money.
In March of 2021, my dad suffered a serious heart attack. I had to assume control of his resources and monies to help with his recovery. He kept the phone near his side, always close at hand. He would nervously check his phone like a teenager. His health quickly deteriorated, and he passed away.
Under normal circumstances, the story would be over. When I took possession of his phone, papers, and effects, I noticed a $30,000 wire transfer made out from his account. I noticed another $15,000 wire transfer out of his account, and so on. All monies were sent to a law firm in Kansas City. The sum total of the transfers was $168,000. To some people, this is all the money in the world. In fact, this $168,000 represented all the money my dad had to his name. There was even a loan request where he asked for an additional $30,000 loan that was “declined.” There were piles of gift cards in Amazon for $2,500, iTunes for $1,500, eBay for $3,500 — these gift cards totaled another $18,000. My father didn’t know what iTunes was. He never even bought anything off eBay. I went through his phone and found answers.
This “girl” told my father that her daughter was dying. There were pictures of a 4-year-old girl with a sign that said: “I can’t wait to meet you American Daddy.”
My father was instructed by this “girl” to send front and back pictures of the gift cards. This “girl” was able to redeem the gift cards electronically from anywhere in the world. All of this money was promised to provide for this so-called dying 4-year-old child. The pictures were there of a sad kid whose head had been shaved by someone to pretend to be sick. This “girl” had been working him slowly for nine months, every day texting him about how he was doing and was he eating enough vegetables, etc. The “girl” claimed the money was being used for her sick daughter’s treatments (wire transfers) and little toys from Amazon (gift cards) to keep her happy while spending the holidays in the hospital.
The worst realization was in March 2021, my father had stated that he had no more money to help. He was financially tapped out. The “girl” said she needed to know that he could care for the 4-year-old and to attempt a loan with his bank. But, the saddest news came when I compared the date of his heart attack with a text message wherein this “girl” said my dad could not be trusted to provide for her sick 4-year-old. When he realized he was taken advantage of, the heart attack occurred less than 30 minutes later. The disgrace of giving all that he had to someone who tricked him did him in. He sat on his hospital bed and sent a picture to this “girl” to state that he was in the hospital — maybe as proof that he was really ill.
When she failed to appear at his bedside, he knew he had been duped. He died ashamed and broke.
A Long Shot for Justice
I took this information immediately to law enforcement. I received the usual “the internet is not our jurisdiction,” if I was even able to reach an actual officer. I reached out to everyone from the FBI to Homeland Security, Arizona law enforcement, Kansas City law enforcement, etc. What concerned me the most was the forging of boarding passes for international travel. The “girl’s” boarding pass looked legitimate; she was pretending to come and visit my father. It was as if she was trying to say, “See, I really was coming to see you in December, look at my boarding pass.” I compiled a file of relevant documents that I’d forward to law enforcement. I was flatly rejected nearly every time. However, things turned around for the investigation when an officer reviewed my file of information. Apparently, the forging of a boarding pass created a true security concern, and the case began moving forward. The boarding pass, I’m told, was a good enough forgery to board a plane and that got the attention of law enforcement. Certain details I can’t reveal because it might jeopardize the ongoing investigation. Hopefully, the bad guys see justice, but I’m doubtful. And nothing will bring back my dad.
What You Can Do to Prevent Catfishing
I write this as a cautionary tale to other people. Watch out for the elderly. The strong men and women in our lives lose tremendous faculties as they age. The elderly are literally more prone to scams. We like to think of our elders in the best days. We don’t track the missteps or mistakes. The elderly don’t fully comprehend how information can be weaponized and used against them.
Help your loved ones by insisting that your family member have your contact information stored with their banks and credit cards. Ethical bankers will call the family to guarantee the transfer is valid prior to funds being disbursed. In fact, insist upon the bank being ordered to check with another member of the family if funds are directed to non-family members (or anyone). Most banks have a policy on the elderly sending money to persons outside their immediate family. Also, check their credit and credit card activity often.
Make sure that money doesn’t go out that hasn’t been vetted by someone else. The elderly can be quite generous to preferred charities, and they get used to people cold-calling them for donations. They don’t often perceive how much sensitive banking information they give away on what may at first appear to be routine calls. Scammers pretending to represent legitimate charities can steal a tremendous amount of sensitive information. Ask your family members to immediately report to you if someone is contacting them for any money.
Social media is a fantastic venue to see updated pictures of the grandkids, but remember we present a tremendous amount of information about ourselves when we post online to the world around us. I’ve heard stories of scammers pretending to be Mexican police and reporting to have a grandchild in jail. The scammer pretends to be a law enforcement official and requests a bond of $5,000 or kiddo goes to Mexican prison. A simple internet search of social media usually shows friends and family. It’s reasonable to assume that a college-age boy in the southwestern United States might travel to Mexico for spring break. The kiddo posts picture of Mexico and then grandparents get a demand for money and are instructed to tell no one or said relative goes to prison. Guess what? Grandparents pay $5,000 and the kiddo never was in trouble to begin with, but the money will never be recouped.
Please have a family discussion about scams and money. Never, never let parents send any money or divulge any information that comes from email or text messages. Please protect your loved ones so they don’t die alone and ashamed, as my dad did.
About the Author
Jason Squires is an attorney with over 23 years of defense experience protecting the rights of citizens accused of gun crimes. He is an avid firearms enthusiast and in his off-time he competes across the nation in three-gun competitions.
Lever-action rifles have experienced a massive resurgence in popularity over the last few years, and it's not hard to see why. While they're obviously not as combat-effective as modern semi-auto rifles like the AR-15, lever guns can be used very effectively for hunting anything from varmints (in pistol-caliber form) to big game (in rifle calibers such as .30-30 and .45-70). Also, in states and countries where semi-auto rifles are heavily restricted, lever-action rifles usually aren't subject to the same invasive rules, even when equipped with modern features. Above all, they're simply fun to shoot, as evidenced every time we take our Marlin 336 Dark Series project to the range. POF USA has announced its own entry into the modernized lever-action rifle market with the new Tombstone 9mm carbine.
POF USA Tombstone 9mm Carbine
The new POF USA Tombstone is a modern, lever-action, pistol caliber carbine (PCC). POF says it's “initially offered” in 9mm, but this language tells us other pistol calibers may be available in the future. From front to back, it features a free-float, fluted, 16.5-inch barrel with a two-chamber muzzle brake over standard 1/2×28 threads. The barrel is surrounded by a 10.5-inch Modular Receiver Rail (M.R.R.) which includes M-LOK slots, Picatinny rail sections, and QD sockets for a sling.
Ghost ring sights are built into the rail system, but we suspect most users will install a red dot sight as shown in these photos.
Magazines & Controls
The receiver features a magwell and button release for the detachable 9mm magazines, which are a proprietary POF USA design compatible with the Tombstone and Phoenix series. Standard Tombstone models include one 20-round mag; Colorado-compliant models include a 10-round mag instead. Additional 35-round magazines are also available separately.
This rifle's manual of arms should be somewhat familiar to anyone who has used lever guns in the past. It starts with a proprietary 3.5-pound, single-stage, flat-face trigger. The Tombstone's hammer has the half-cocked position many lever-gun users will already be familiar with. There's also a shotgun-style cross-bolt safety at the rear of the aluminum receiver. The lever is contoured to fit a standard Magpul SGA shotgun stock, which offers the ability to accept length of pull spacers, cheekpieces, and QD sockets from Magpul.
Total weight of the Tombstone is 5.75 pounds, and total length is 36 inches. MSRP is firmly positioned in the premium end of the spectrum — $1,962 for black variants and $2,097 for FDE tan variants. Additional magazines are $35 each.
Teaser Video
We're interested to get our hands on the new POF USA Tombstone later this month at SHOT Show, and we hope to review one in the future as well. In the meantime, check out the video below from POF's YouTube to see the Tombstone in action.
Night vision capability is a powerful advantage for any emergency preparedness plan. Last year we dedicated an entire print issue to the topic. The most important lesson is that working effectively in the dark isn't as simple as buying a PVS-14 monocular or a pair of goggles and slapping them on your helmet. Particularly if you want to effectively pair defensive firearms with night vision, there are some unique considerations to account for. Integrating infrared lasers and illuminators onto your night vision rifle setup of choice will make it more versatile under NVGs.
Above: An infrared laser offers the ability to “actively” aim at a target without looking through the weapon sight. Even if you plan to “passively” aim through a red dot sight, an IR laser serves as a valuable backup.
Adding an IR illuminator and/or laser to your rifle will have a noticeable effect on its ergonomics and control suite. Not only do these accessories take up a good chunk of “rail-estate” but so do the buttons and switches required to operate them. If they're configured in a confusing or inconvenient manner, they may impede your ability to use the weapon or distract you from the task at hand. Fortunately, the aftermarket is flush with options for operating both white lights and IR lasers seamlessly, with minimal impact on how you would normally handle your weapon. While there are also plenty of options for handguns, this article will focus on carbine and PDW switchology, as it tends to be a little more equipment-intensive than configurations for handguns.
Night Vision Rifle Configurations
Above: Web Editor Patrick McCarthy's 11.5-inch SBR features an ATPIAL IR laser / IR illuminator combo unit on the top rail as well as a Cloud Defensive REIN white light offset at the 2:00 position.
The first step in determining what your switching/control requirements are is to determine what your IR laser/illuminator setup looks like. There are two basic answers to this question:
Combination unit that has both an IR laser and IR illuminator
Standalone IR laser that will, most likely, require a separate outboard IR illuminator
Above: The author's “Do-All Survival SBR” incorporates an Arisaka/Malkoff Devices white light at 3:00 and a Holosun IR laser/illuminator combo at 12:00.
Subdividing the choices even further, there are two possible illuminator/light solutions to consider:
Dual Mode (VIS+IR) — pair your standalone IR laser with a dual-output light that features both white light (a.k.a. visible light) and IR light
IR Only — pair your standalone laser with a dedicated IR-only flashlight, and attach a separate white-light-only weaponlight
Read on as we show some practical examples of each of these night vision rifle setups.
IR Laser / IR Illuminator Combo + White Light
These are the ideal solution if you can afford it. The general performance of your NVGs will depend on the quality of your tubes, but all night-vision requires ambient light and all will experience degraded performance when environmental lighting is in short supply. For example, think of a dark basement with no windows, or a bedroom at night with the curtains drawn. While lasers will give you a visible point of aim for shooting, they will not light up the target or its background. This is why IR illumination is so vital to a holistic NV-capable weapon setup.
IR laser / IR illuminator combo units offer a one-stop answer to this problem. But they’re noticeably more expensive than purchasing a standalone laser. Some examples include:
Almost all systems in this category come with factory pressure pad remotes, but many folks will simply use the on-body button. Since you typically will not activate a flashlight and IR unit simultaneously, combo units are great for those who prefer avoiding the clutter of tape switches and remotes altogether. Position the combo unit and white light so that both push buttons are near your support thumb, and press whichever one you need when you need it. This is most effective on shorter weapons like SBRs and PCCs/PDWs where rail space is limited.
The alternate option is a remote switch, or switches. As we said, just about every laser out there will come with a tape switch. But when you are trying to integrate said switch onto a handguard that already has a remote pad for white light, space becomes limited quickly. This is where aftermarket solutions like the Unity Tactical TAPS come into play. Designed in conjunction with TNVC, the TAPS offers a single, slightly enlarged pressure pad with two distinct buttons, and dual cable leads, to activate light or laser off a single plate. The TAPS is designed from the bottom up for low-light use. Each of the two TAPS buttons includes visual and tactile “dots” molded in so that, even without being able to see the buttons, you can figure out which peripheral you are about to activate.
If an IR laser with built-in IR illuminator is out of your budget, you can pair a standalone laser with a dual-output weaponlight. Some examples of standalone IR lasers without onboard illuminators include:
Steiner OTAL and most DBAL-I2 models (excluding 9007)
Holosun 117 and 221 series
Zenitco PERST-4
The example seen here is a Holosun LS221G, which is a green/IR laser-only unit, paired with a Surefire M600V Scout Light. The V-series Scouts feature a head assembly which can be switched from white to IR light by twisting the head to select your desired mode. This option can help keep costs down as you get both a white light and IR illuminator in a single purchase. But there are two trade-offs to this. First, building dual-spectrum output into a single light head means that, while your light becomes a jack-of-all-trades, it will be a master of neither. Dual-mode lights typically have much lower white-light output than their dedicated brethren. For example, the white-light-only M600 Pro has an output of 1,000 lumens. But the dual-mode M600V Pro only pushes 350 lumens of white light and 120mW of IR illumination.
The other issue is one of switching. When you’re using white light, you only want the white light. When using IR, you’ll want the light and laser activated simultaneously. For cases like this, we are back to Unity Tactical for the TAPS SYNC. Its physical layout is identical to the standard TAPS, but features internal program that can be had in several configurations. Our example here is the “V1” programming, setup as follows:
Button 1 activates light only
Button 2 activates light and laser simultaneously
When you need white light, rotate the head to white output and use button 1. When you want to shoot under NVGs, rotate the light head to IR mode and use button 2 to fire it and your standalone laser at the same time for targeting and illumination.
This is, of course, not the only way to do this. You could try to use a combination of body button (or click tailcap) plus a single-output tape switch, but we have found that this is awkward to operate on the fly, and we run out of fingers trying to push two buttons on and off while maintaining a positive grip on the weapon.
IR Laser + IR Illuminator + White Light
The third option is to mount a standalone IR laser (as discussed above), a dedicated IR illuminator, and a dedicated white light.
Again, with all things, there are trade-offs. On the upside, dedicated IR illuminators will have much stronger output than a dual-mode weapon light. Our setup here features an Arisaka Defense 300-series Scout-style light body with a Malkoff Devices EX IR 250 IR-only head. The Malkoff head is capable of 250mW of IR output, with a 4-hour runtime on a single CR123 battery. There is also a 700mW version available for longer-range use. Both will give you far superior illumination to a dual-mode white/IR light. But this requires you to then mount an entire second flashlight onto your weapon for white-light capability. Not only is this added weight and bulk on the muzzle end of your weapon (where you’ll feel it most) but you now have three wires to manage instead of two.
We mounted our Arisaka/Malkoff illuminator in tandem with a Steiner DBAL-I2, on an American Defense Manufacturing DBAL-SF mount. This is a single mount with QD lever attachment with direct-mount brackets for both a DBAL-style laser and a Surefire Scout-style light. This unit puts your laser at the 12-o-clock position, with a 45-degree offset for the accompanying light. This mount can be used with multiple lasers and lights in whatever combination you can think of, but we felt it was ideal to run a standalone laser with standalone IR illuminator. For white light work, we mounted a Cloud Defensive REIN 2.0 at the 5-o-clock position.
Any light with a Surefire-pattern remote socket would make this another ideal place to put a Unity TAPS SYNC. But because the REIN has a proprietary back end with its own remote pad, we selected a ModLite Mod Button Lite dual-lead switch to run the IR functions. The dual-lead Mod Button features the same combination of Surefire and Crane leads, but its microscopic footprint means the programming is limited to momentary-only, dual-activation-only configuration. That means there’s only one output mode – press the button and both leads fire. This makes it inappropriate for a combo unit + white light setup, as you typically would only want one or the other. However, in this arrangement, where we’re going to want to activate the IR-only light every time we activate the laser, it’s a good solution. This leaves the separate, REIN remote as your white-light-only switch, so you simply press one or the other depending on whether you’re using NVGs or not.
Conclusion
There are a nearly-infinite number of switching and control configurations that can be woven from all the available IR laser, IR illuminator, light, and remote switch choices on the market. But the bottom line is that the prudence of building low-light and no-light capability into your overall preparedness plan is not going to change anytime soon. While this guide is by no means all-inclusive, we hope to give you some reference points to start from in building out your own night vision rifle setup and night-fighting skill set.
There's a common saying on the internet: if you're not paying for a product, you are the product. The “free” online services such as email, social media, and streaming video you use on a daily basis aren't free — there are substantial costs for hosting, domain registration, maintenance, security, and so on. If you're not directly paying a share of those costs, the owners of these sites are using you as a source of income. Sometimes, this is through simple and unobtrusive banner ads on pages (as is the case here on OFFGRIDweb), but other times it's through silently capturing and reselling massive quantities of highly personalized data. Google is the world's foremost expert on tracking and monetizing user data, and the Silicon Valley tech behemoth recently added a new My Ad Center dashboard that sheds some light on the accuracy of their user tracking system.
Google's new My Ad Center opens with the slogan “Your ads, your choice.” It touts the ability to “easily customize” and “personalize” the types of ads you see on Google's various web properties such as Search and YouTube. But unless you want to reduce ads about a sensitive topic — for example, dog toy ads after your dog just passed away — the real value of My Ad Center is to see a small glimpse of what Google knows about you and your lifestyle.
How Much Does Google Know?
Based on data including every search keyword you type, every search result link you click, and every YouTube video you watch, Google automatically develops a digital profile about you. Although it's not explicitly mentioned in Ad Center, it almost certainly also factors in information from Gmail emails you sent and received, location data from Android smartphones (i.e. businesses or other Android users you recently visited), routes traveled on Google Maps, content you watched on your Android TV, and much more. This user profile also includes specific information such as:
Gender
Age
Primary language
Relationship status
Parenting Status (including approximate age of children)
Household income level
Education
Industry/Profession
Employer Size
Home Ownership Status
Google's My Ad Center also shows the general ad topics you're likely interested in, as well as “Brands for You.” If you wish, you can ask Google to reduce ads about “Sensitive Topics” (alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss). Finally, Ad Center shows recent ads that similar brands have paid to display to users that fit your specific demographics. So, for example, let's say XYZ Widget Co. wants to display ads to unmarried men under the age of 25 with an interest in technology — Google will happily oblige. Of course, this profile can also be used to target more vulnerable demographics, such as predatory loan companies serving ads to low-income users with limited education.
There should be no doubt that your Google advertising profile has vastly more specific and invasive data than what's listed here, so consider this the tip of the privacy intrusion iceberg. You should also assume other major tech companies such as Meta and Amazon have followed Google's example and developed similarly detailed profiles based on your activity. The more sophisticated and accurate a user's profile, the easier it will be to convince that user to purchase a product or make any other real-world decision.
What Can You Do About It?
Is there anything you can do to avoid this personalized tracking? Not really, short of deactivating all your accounts on Google services and not using those services (including Android phones, Android TV, Nest cameras, Google Home, etc.) again in the future. After all, Google isn't going to let you use their services for free — they'll only allow it if you willingly trade this personalized data for access. You can turn off personalized ads in My Ad Center and limit ads about sensitive topics, but that just means you'll see more generic ads. It doesn't mean Google will stop collecting or monetizing your data.
At the very least, reviewing Google's digital profiling dashboard should make you reconsider how much privacy you actually have online. Hopefully it gives you a moment of pause before the next time you type sensitive keywords into that search bar, email, or even text message. It might also cause you to think twice about filling your home with IoT smart devices that are always gathering data to add to your profile.
If you’d been abducted and your family was notified by the perpetrators that you’d be released in exchange for ransom money, what course of action could ensure your safe release? Who should your family call or not call to assist them? How could they verify if it’s a hoax or not? There are so many variables to deal with that it’s difficult to know if steps taken to meet the kidnappers’ demands will be successful or trigger additional problems. The truth is, even if you’re not wealthy, recognizable, or associated with any illicit activities, all that kidnappers need to do is make an assumption that you’re worth something to someone. The longer the clock ticks on any kidnapping, the greater that victim’s level of incarceration becomes and the less likely it is that they’ll ever be recovered.
In Issue 25, we asked counter-custody expert Ed Calderon, “What’s the usual outcome for the victims if the kidnappers’ demands aren’t met?” Ed’s answer was rather morbid. “Death is usually the immediate outcome. Body disposal in Mexico occurs on an industrial level, and you will likely never be found. They’re very professional when it comes to body disposal. Caustic sodas, pig farms, and mass graves are all over the place, and the forensic science isn’t at the level where you will be identified post-mortem.” That being said, we asked trained hostage negotiator Kris Southards and Arizona detective Cory Fechtelkotter to weigh in on what to do if they were confronted with a possible kidnapping for ransom situation.
Illustrations by Robert Bruner
The Ransom Kidnapping Scenario
Situation Type Ransom
Your Crew You, your brother, and sister-in-law
Location Your hometown
Season Winter
Weather Snowy; high 27 degrees F, low 12 degrees F
The Setup: From the Lindbergh kidnapping to the crew of the Maran Centaurus oil tanker to John Paul Getty III to Patty Hearst, ransom kidnappings are nothing new. However, don’t think you have to be a business magnate or famous individual to be a target. If a kidnapper thinks someone — whether it’s a government, employer, or loved one — would pay in exchange for your life, that’s all the motivation they’ll need.
While some engaged in this activity may be unsophisticated individuals hoping for a quick buck, others are international criminal syndicates or drug cartels that have turned kidnappings into a cottage industry. The bottom line is you don’t know who you’re dealing with until the wheels of the crime are in motion. If someone you know is taken under the auspices of a kidnapping and the perpetrators are demanding a ransom in exchange for the kidnapper, how should you handle it?
There’s a common assumption that ransom kidnappings only happen to the families of billionaires and politicians, but this isn’t the case. After all, why would criminals only target high-profile individuals who have enough money and power to instantly trigger a nationwide manhunt? In reality, it’s much easier to choose lower-profile targets who can’t or won’t alert the authorities and the media. For example, a June 2022 report by the FBI’s El Paso Field Office stated that the agency has seen “an increase in crimes involving kidnapping for ransom and extortion crimes directly affecting undocumented immigrants who have paid human smugglers to bring them across the United States-Mexico border.”
It’s likely that many ransom crimes go unreported, since victims involved in any illegal activity — drugs, gambling, and prostitution, to name a few — typically fear the authorities just as much as the kidnappers. And even if you’re not breaking any laws, a less-than-reputable friend or family member could easily drag you into one of these terrifying situations.
The Complication: It has been three days since you last heard from your 22-year-old brother. Your sister-in-law called you in hysterics saying that he didn’t come home from work. In the days that followed, you began to suspect foul play is involved. Although he’s known to be an impulsive party animal, a recreational drug user, and run with a rough group of friends, he hasn’t been in any serious trouble before. Now he’s not responding to emails, texts, or calls, and your concern is rising. His phone is still ringing for now, which tells you that either he lost his phone, is deliberately trying to avoid contact, or has experienced some kind of major emergency.
On the fourth day, a note appears in your sister-in-law’s mailbox. It states clearly that he has been kidnapped and threatens the death of your brother if authorities are notified. It also says that a ransom payment can be made in exchange for his life with more instructions to follow. The next day, you’re with your sister-in-law, and a call comes in on her phone with a muffled gravelly voice issuing demands for thousands of dollars. The voice says that screams audible in the background are coming from your brother, but you can’t be absolutely sure it’s him screaming.
Since his wife comes from a wealthy family and there’s a possibility of drug dealer involvement, you could see that a ransom kidnapping may be a valid threat. Is it someone who may have found out about the situation and is attempting to profit off it, even though they have nothing to do with his disappearance? Could your brother be a willing participant, working with shady friends for a cut of the ransom money? Or is this an actual kidnapping perpetrated by people with sophisticated enough surveillance to discover whatever recourse you’re planning? What should you do?
Detective Cory Fechtelkotter’s Approach
Preparation The odds of someone you care about falling victim to a kidnapping and ransom scheme are low, but the stakes are so high that turning a blind eye to the possibility could be a horrifying mistake. True kidnappings are no trivial crime. The idea of families going through a harrowing, but brief period of strife before being happily reunited is the exception, not the rule. More often than not, the story ends in tragedy. A bad ending is common enough that in some states, such as my home state of Arizona, deadly force is explicitly authorized by law to stop a kidnapping (Arizona Revised Statutes 13-411A, ARS 13-1304). The basis for this is simple — kidnapping victims wind up dead often enough that using deadly force to stop a kidnapping may very well prevent a murder.
Due to the potentially lethal outcomes of a kidnapping, there should be a strong focus on prevention. Whenever I think about crime prevention, I reverse-engineer my strategies by thinking from the perpetrator’s perspective. I imagine the ideal target, setting, and circumstances to accomplish a crime, then brainstorm what would be most disruptive to those criminal objectives. Security experts often call this an “adversarial mindset” exercise.
In trying to identify the ideal target to hold for ransom, I’d select someone who had family or business connections who wouldn’t blink at paying thousands to help one of their own. To this end, discourage your loved ones and those close to them from ostentatious displays of wealth, especially on social media. Stylistically, it’s better to give off the vibe of a dorky software developer or milquetoast middle manager than a club-hopping Kardashian. In addition to keeping a low profile, there are numerous privacy services, and even ransom insurance, which could be considered. The degree to which any of those makes sense for you or your family depends on how high your risk is. If you aren’t a celebrity or a prominent executive (or a relative of one) working in dangerous locales outside the U.S., such precautions are likely unnecessary and almost certainly cost-prohibitive.
To facilitate the kidnapping itself, I’d prefer a victim who is impaired and isolated, making them less able to protect themselves and less likely to get help from bystanders. To mitigate this, avoid public drunkenness or being alone, especially in transitional spaces like parking lots. Well-lit public places, crowded with plenty of witnesses, aren’t a good setting for any crime where the suspect needs to avoid detection or interruption.
Once the plan is in motion, I’d commit to a victim who doesn’t put up much of a fight when the abduction happens. If there is too much resistance, the best option for a suspect would simply be to cut bait and move on to a more docile, less-prepared target. Being a tougher target is actually quite simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. To counter an abduction attempt, you must be prepared, and that preparation usually comes in the form of training coupled with the right equipment, and just as important, the willingness to use them when justified.
Being armed is a good start, but not enough. Actual combatives training incorporating empty hand techniques and weapon retention skills is also a must. If you’re armed, but can’t maintain control of your weapon, you’re nothing more than a walking holster for your attacker. If you’re otherwise prepared, but are caught off-guard, or are simply unwilling to act, you’ve likely already lost. Regardless, if an attacker tries to move you to a secondary location, don’t give up. You must fight as if your life depends on it because it very well might. Do everything in your power to avoid being taken to a secondary, secluded location. If you’re in a vehicle, this may mean deliberately crashing the car; if you’re on foot, run or attempt to draw the attention of bystanders.
Thankfully, these strategies aren’t unique to preventing an abduction, but are also viable techniques for preventing or stopping more common street crimes like robberies and carjackings. And the “think like a criminal” approach to prevention is a great exercise not just for serious crimes, but even commonplace crimes like car break-ins and pickpocketing.
Onsite Unfortunately, we’re presented with a scenario in which attempts at avoidance, deterrence, and disruption have failed. So, the first step is verifying if this situation is what our “bad guy” says it is. After all, many ransom schemes are just that — schemes. Remember that the “con” in con-artist or con-man is short for “confidence.” The criminal may not be a kidnapper at all, but a skilled liar who presents themselves so convincingly that the target believes what they’re told despite the lack of solid evidence.
An unfortunately common scam is for con-artists to call unsuspecting families and claim a relative is imprisoned in a foreign jail, and a large sum is needed to secure their release, when in fact the loved one is just fine, but perhaps not immediately reachable by phone. Oftentimes, the perpetrator will want some form of difficult or nearly-impossible-to-trace payment, such as a money order, cryptocurrency, or gift card serial numbers. These forms of payment aren’t unique to common scammers, however, and just because they want payment in this manner doesn’t necessarily indicate this is a scam as opposed to a real ransom.
So how do you go about determining if this was an actual ransom, or just some scam? With any luck, the suspect will make that much clear. Even the most ignorant, uncooperative, unsophisticated criminal should be willing to share some information if they can be convinced it’s in their best interests to do so. My approach to this would be making sure our perpetrator believes I’m willing to work with them — even if that isn’t the case at all — but I need assurances my brother is alive and well. If the kidnapper believes they can still get their payday by providing proof of life, they’d have a very strong incentive to do so.
Even though this is a criminal we’re dealing with, self-interest is a powerful motivator, and it’s what I use as a common focal point when communicating with any criminal. Though the possibility exists that the kidnapper may be completely unreasonable, refuse to provide any information whatsoever, and require you to follow all their demands without question, such a scenario seems improbable. Whether it’s a genuine kidnapper or just a con-artist, they want their payday and will usually give you something to work with if they think it will advance their position.
If they refuse to provide any proof, there isn’t much incentive to continue communicating with them. It seems very likely it would just be a hoax, and even if it wasn’t and you decided to cooperate, I’d have no reason to believe they’d stick to their own terms. If they can get money out of you without even providing proof of life, there’s nothing stopping them from demanding more and more without giving anything to you in return. While the inflexible “we don’t negotiate with criminals” approach probably isn’t the right one, you can’t be a doormat either.
Crisis If they provide proof of life, you need to decide whether or not to get the police involved. For me, this decision would be easy, even if the extortionists explicitly stated not to contact police. For most ordinary people, the risks of involving law enforcement will tremendously outweigh any potential downsides. Most of us simply don’t have the resources to give the kidnapper what they want, even if we wanted to. And even those with those resources may simply not be willing to work with an extortionist. Not out of a callous disregard for their loved one, but because of one simple truth: criminals as a whole tend to be untrustworthy and unreliable.
Add to that the understandable lack of experience most people have in bargaining with criminals, let alone facilitating a prisoner release. For most, it just makes sense to try and get help from someone with some actual experience or resources to employ. Even the police recognize how important it is to get help when they’re out of their depth; it’s routine for agencies to call on assistance from others when met with a crisis they don’t have much experience with.
If you aren’t sold on going to the police for help, but recognize the need for other assistance, you could look at other options. Even if you could find such an individual or organization that specializes in resolving ransoms, the cost of employing them could be as expensive as just paying the ransom outright. Additionally, involving any outsiders at all could be seen as a provocation nearly as bad as getting the actual cops involved.
Provoking the perpetrator may be too much of a gamble for some folks, and they decide they want to go it alone. Considering the stakes, reluctance to involve police is understandable. If you choose to go that route, here are some things to keep in mind. You have essentially entered into a crisis negotiation, and crisis negotiations largely center on these key factors. You must build trust and rapport, so you have credibility when trying to reach a mutually beneficial conclusion. In the case of a ransom, the mutually beneficial conclusion is the extortionist gets their money (and faces no legal repercussions for their actions), and you get your family back. This is no ordinary crisis negotiation, however.
If you’ve decided not to involve the police, your only leverage is the money the suspect is after. It isn’t a very good bargaining position. By comparison, when I’m working as a police crisis negotiator bargaining with a barricaded suspect, I usually have towering, insurmountable leverage. They are surrounded by a police special-response team and have been cut off from communicating with anyone besides the negotiators. They eventually accept we’re just waiting for them to calm down rather than use the overwhelming force available to us. Even then, negotiations can be fraught with fixations on small details and take hours to resolve. In over a decade of crisis negotiations, some of my most difficult calls were those where I didn’t have the extreme position of advantage I normally do. If you decide to go it alone, you would be working from an even weaker position.
Trained Negotiator Kris Southards’ Approach
Preparation There are approximately 100 kidnappings in the United States per year. Kidnapping will be defined, for this article, as the taking and holding of an individual against his or her will, with the stated purpose of exchanging that person for something of value to the kidnapper(s). According to one source, the average worldwide ransom demand in the past year was approximately $250,000. The source expected the average to increase to over $325,000 in 2022.
Abductions are, for the purpose of this article, significantly different from kidnappings. Ordinarily, there’s no intent to return the person abducted to his or her loved ones. Abductions happen much more frequently than kidnappings and ordinarily the targets are young women and children.
Very little information is out there on kidnappings in the U.S. — certainly on recent kidnappings. No information was found regarding circumstances, victim, and outcome. News media and the internet have numerous stories on abductions. The two most recent stories on kidnappings found indicate they were ill planned and or almost accidental attempts.
The ill-planned kidnapping involved four people taking the victim over a supposedly stolen cell phone. The actual taking of the individual was caught on a hotel security camera. The perpetrators were caught just a few hours later, and the victim was safe. The other case involved a lone actor who attempted a carjacking but kept the driver, demanding the victim’s phone and money before placing the victim in the trunk. The victim escaped from the trunk and authorities apprehended the guilty party shortly thereafter.
Though rare, they do happen. It has been said the best fight is the one avoided. The same can be said of kidnapping. A cursory review of the internet will show you several companies and or individuals advertising kidnap prevention and escape courses. Basically, these courses can be broken down into two approaches. The first involves a combative approach. The second is based on avoiding dangerous situations.
According to SBS Training Solutions, “There is a place for combative-style training, there can also a few drawbacks. First, it is unrealistic to assume that even a skilled person with actual combat experience will be capable of overcoming attackers who have the advantage of surprise and superior numbers. Furthermore, given that many countries (and some places within the U.S.) prohibit the carrying of weapons, the idea of self-defense weapons training in these instances is questionable, and its ability to protect against an attack is unlikely.” Avoiding the situation in a nutshell is having a realistic assessment of threat level. Being aware of those in your environment and of leaving at the first signs of trouble.
Onsite Home-security solutions are abundant and relatively inexpensive. Whether you can have a camera viewing your mailbox is dependent upon where your mailbox is located. In many urban areas and even small towns, mailboxes are clustered in a tower arrangement, and it can be located some distance from your home. The flip side is that it’s difficult for bad actors to gain access to your mailbox.
Finding an individual by tracking the location and movement of their cell phone or car is possible. Contrary to the impression given in movies and television, tracking the location of his or her phone isn’t as simple as they make it. There are a multitude of apps for both Android and Apple devices to track your phone — repeat, your phone. There are just as many to track someone else’s phone. But (and this is a big but) unless they are dependent children, the owner of the phone must give his or her permission. Sure, there’s probably the opportunity to put the tracking program on the phone without his or her knowledge. You decide if the consequences are worth it. So, unless you have or know an IT person with the skills to get into the carrier’s system, this is a significant obstacle.
Tracking a car isn’t like the movies. While many cars, at least those in the past 15 years or so, have a GPS program in their software. Accessing that information isn’t easily done by most. The simplest solution is to put a tracking module on the car. There are many devices on the market that are inexpensive. Again, the difficulty is convincing the owner/driver of the car that you’re doing this with the purest of motives.
Credit cards and ATM cards don’t have any GPS capabilities. If you’re on the account, then it’s a simple matter to find when and where it was last used. If you aren’t, it’s highly unlikely that the company that issued the card would grant you access. Whether the information gained from last use of the card is useful is dependent on when it was used. Initially, based upon our scenario the only things known for certain is the subject left home for work and didn’t return home. At this time, it’s too late to try an obtain Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) insurance.
K&R insurance is generally marketed toward companies and foundations whose personnel travel overseas. They also tend toward individuals of high personal wealth to include sports figures and those in the public eye or anyone traveling outside of the United States. But anyone can purchase thus insurance.
K&R insurance costs are estimated to range from $400 to $3,000 per million dollars of coverage depending on coverage. Most companies offering such insurance will provide crisis management teams to help in negotiating with the kidnappers and obtaining funds to pay ransom demands. Some also offer a tactical response team to rescue the kidnapped. K&R insurance companies can require that you don’t tell anyone you have such coverage. Telling your best friend or mentioning it at the neighborhood picnic will void the policy.
Crisis After talking with the sister-in-law, you both begin to keep a written record of what the two of you do. People will say they’ll remember, but the truth is no they won’t. Have her write down what he was wearing that day if she can recall the attire. Also, write down any distinguishing marks or tattoos. Print the most recent photo available of him. This information will be important when/if you file a missing person report. Make contact with the brother’s friends and work associates; write down what they tell you.
Given our scenario, after 24 hours, file a missing person’s report with the police. Most law enforcement agencies will not declare him a missing person at that time, but the report will be on record. Also, consider hiring a private investigator (PI). The PI will be dedicated to your case. He/she will certainly have the experience in tracking missing person that you lack.
Once foul play is suspected, obtain at least three “burner phones” with voice memo capability. (See “Mobile Security” in RECOIL OFFGRID 52 for more info on burner phones). One for the sister-in-law, one for a trusted friend/associate, and one for you. All further communication between your sister-in-law, and you should be through the burner phones. The burner phones serve at least two purposes. It allows the home phone to be available. It provides a simple method to record incoming calls on that line by putting the incoming call on speaker and placing the burner phone near it and activating the voice memo function.
Federal law permits the recording of a phone call without the other caller’s permission as long as you’re a part of the conversation and have no criminal intent. Washington, D.C. and 38 states have similar laws. However, currently 12 states require consent from all parties involved. Those states are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
On the fourth day, a ransom note is received demanding payment in exchange for your brother. It notes he will be killed if authorities are notified. Using the burner phone, call the trusted friend and advise him to go to the authorities and give them a detailed version of what has happened to date.
On the fifth day of our scenario, you receive a call from the “kidnapper(s).” Absent proof of life, there’s no assurance that whoever made the call actually has the brother or that he’s alive.
Ideally, proof of life will entail a video call with the victim. It most likely will not happen. But a phone call where you can hear his voice and ask a question to which only he has the answer is a real possibility. Any type of photo, given Photoshop capabilities, would be highly suspect. Absent proof of life, complying with the kidnappers’ demand is an act of hope akin to believing the Titanic will make it to New York.
The FBI has recently advised that “virtual kidnappings” have increased. This is where bad people call and say they have kidnapped your loved one while there’s a voice screaming in the background and demand money for his/her release. Now if (and this a big if) can the emotions of it all be controlled? Remember that both parties have something the other wants. That, stripped of the raw anguish, is a negotiation.
Expressions of anger or making threats to the kidnappers will not rate high on how to achieve a successful outcome. The kidnappers are betting you most likely don’t have the skill set and contacts to rain havoc on them.
There are numerous books and articles available on negotiating. Listening, not just hearing the words, to what is said, how it’s said, and the tone used are skills that reap benefits. While reading a few articles or books will not make one a skilled negotiator, any knowledge gained is useful, even if it’s the realization that this isn’t something in your wheelhouse or that you need to bring in someone who can handle the situation. The goal is to bring your loved one home alive. You decide what price will be paid.
Conclusion
This all might give the impression that a ransom situation is hopelessly outside of your control, which from the criminal perspective, is by design. If extortionists didn’t hold most of the cards once the abduction took place, there would be little point in attempting it in the first place. So as with any rare, but dramatically life-altering crime, a focus on avoidance and prevention is the best approach. If you find yourself facing this challenge despite your best efforts to avoid it, don’t lose hope, but recognize you can use all the help you get, and handling it on your own is a precarious proposition.
Get in the habit of sharing your location on your smartphone with family members, especially when traveling. Create a contact list of friends and family you can leave with a trusted confidant to call if for some reason you turn up missing. Establish routine check-ins with certain people and make them aware of any periods that you’ll knowingly be unreachable. Just as Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton blinked “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in Morse code when he was captured during the Vietnam War, think about devising code words or pantomimes that your contacts will recognize as an esoteric distress signal if you’re allowed to communicate, but not openly reveal the danger you’re in. The more precautions you take up front, the easier it will be to locate you and determine the nature of your situation if you become a target of a kidnapping.
Meet Our Panel
Kris Southards
Kris Southards spent 30 years as a criminal justice professional. He started working in juvenile detention. He spent the next 26 years working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, starting as a correctional officer and rising to management center administrator. During his tenure, he received training in hostage negotiation and was the lead management negotiator in a local union negotiation. He spent the last four years in the private sector as the director of a community reentry center.
Cory Fechtelkotter
Cory Fechtelkotter has been a police officer in northern Arizona for 14 years, serving in a wide variety of roles including patrolman, rangemaster, field training officer, recruit training officer, school resource officer, crisis negotiator, and detective. As a detective, Cory has investigated everything from financial crimes (extortion, fraud, and counterfeiting) to major crimes including sex offenses, crimes against children, and homicide. Cory has successfully negotiated the surrender of multiple barricaded homicide suspects and served as a member of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards & Training Patrol Procedures Subject Matter Expert Committee, where he helped update academy curriculum for topics such as behavioral health crisis response and off-duty officer safety. Cory’s passion is firearms training, both as an instructor at the local academy, and as a lifelong student of the nation’s top firearms instructors.
The role of a sniper is one that’s often misunderstood by the general public. In countless movies and video games, the sniper character is a sneaky lone wolf who uses an exotic takedown rifle that packs into a briefcase and comes equipped with a red laser sight. He mutters some cliché like “one shot, one kill” under his breath before taking out all the villain’s henchmen with perfect headshots. In reality, a sniper’s job is less glamorous and more challenging — they are patient professionals who spend hours (or days) quietly watching an objective from afar. Most of the time, nothing happens, and nobody realizes they were ever there. On the rare occasions when a shot must be fired, the sniper’s response is heavily dependent on reading environmental factors, checking data charts, and listening to input from a trained spotter. And a single miss or tiny miscalculation in one of those moments could be truly catastrophic.
SniperFest 2022
Above: Tim Milkovich indicates a target on the horizon to one of the shooter/spotter teams.
In order to learn more about the skills of professional snipers, I attended the 9th Annual SniperFest training and competition event in Peoria, Arizona. SniperFest, presented by TacFlow Academy in partnership with the Arizona Tactical Officers Association (ATOA), is open to law enforcement and military snipers from around the country, and included training blocks from a variety of instructors. Rob Pettorsson of Cadex Defence was kind enough to lend me a Cadex rifle and some 6.5 Creedmoor ammo so I could participate in some of the training segments firsthand.
Above & Below: Snipers need to be comfortable making accurate shots from a variety of positions, ranging from low kneeling behind an ordinary folding chair to standing behind a tripod that’s set up with a rifle saddle.
The first block was taught by Juan Ospina, an instructor at GPS Defense Sniper School and former USMC Scout Sniper. It focused on shooting fundamentals, so students shot a precise 21-dot drill that quickly revealed trends in our shot placement. Up-and-down impact distribution is usually a byproduct of improper breathing control, so it’s recommended to exhale firmly and shoot once your lungs are empty. If you need to wait more than a few seconds in this state, breathe again to prevent shaking. Left-and-right distribution usually indicates muscular tension affecting your natural point of aim, so you should relax and ensure you’re fully comfortable before breaking a shot.
Next, an Overwatch Standards course led by TacFlow Academy tested accuracy through various timed drills — standing to kneeling, sitting to standing, setting up a tripod quickly, transitioning between multiple targets, and so on. Each student shot the drills, then switched to a spotter role while their partner did the same.
Above: Freddy Osuna of Greenside Training helped students improve their observational skills through the soft sand, rocky terrain, and dense brush of the Arizona desert. Snipers must be adept at noticing small disturbances in an environment.
Our third session covered tracking skills and was taught by Freddy Osuna, a former USMC Scout Sniper and the founder of Greenside Training. These skills apply to hunters following elk as well as law enforcement officers following a fugitive’s trail. For snipers, learning to identify environmental cues such as disturbances in dirt or foliage can help determine a bad guy’s direction of travel and prevent ambushes by counter-snipers. Osuna told students to pause frequently to listen for auditory cues such as warning calls from birds and recommended the use of low-power 8-10x binoculars or monoculars to quickly scan sectors before proceeding. (Keep an eye out for more in-depth articles on Osuna’s tracking and observational curriculum in the future.)
Finally, we headed up onto a ridgeline overlooking a dry riverbed for a block on positional shooting. It was taught by Tim and Regina Milkovich, experts in Precision Rifle Series competition shooting. Students went through stages that involved shooting over the edge of an inclined surface (such as a building’s roof), bracing against rocky terrain, and setting up behind barricades of varying height. Effective shooter-spotter communication was critical here, since less-than-ideal positions led to some misses that needed to be corrected based on the spotter’s feedback.
SniperFest concluded with a competition that pitted snipers from agencies throughout the United States against each other to achieve the highest score in the lowest time. This event gave me a glimpse of the challenges snipers (and their spotters) face and the exhaustive training they go through to overcome them. For more information on the next annual SniperFest event, keep an eye on ATOA’s website, aztac.org. And if you’re interested in honing your own sniper/long-range precision skills, check TacFlow Academy’s website at tacflow.com.
Kris Southards
