TAMPA — Federal authorities sought doomsday prepper Martin Winters for two days in the woods of east Hillsborough County, attempting to arrest him on weapons charges. 
 
 On the third day, agents didn't need to look far at all. 
 
 Winters, soggy-shoed and hungry, waited with a daughter in a car outside the FBI field office on Gray Street in Tampa on Wednesday morning as his attorneys stepped up to a reception desk and arranged his surrender. 
 
 In trade, he got cheeseburgers, fries, Gatorade, dry shoes, praise from the FBI and a morning free of gunfire — all this from the agency that had spent months chronicling his antigovernment rhetoric and spying on his preparations for an imminent "last stand" with law enforcement. 
 
 "We're glad to report that Mr. Winters did the right thing," said FBI spokesman David Couvertier. "We were hoping for a peaceful resolution, and today we got that." 
 
 Winters invoked his right to remain silent and was moved to the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa for a first appearance before Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson. 
 
 The defendant's three adult daughters sobbed when he was led into the room in restraints. He wore dark camouflage pants and a brown T-shirt, his face rimmed by a Zeus-like mane of churning black and white curls. 
 
 He stood when the judge entered the room. He called Wilson "Sir." 
 
 But Wilson called Winters a danger to the community and ordered him held without bail. 
 
 Federal authorities say Winters, 55, leads a group known as the River Otter Preppers that advocates survival preparations in advance of an end-times event foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation. 
 
 He and five others were indicted by a grand jury nearly two weeks ago. He's accused of designing and building destructive devices without a permit, among other charges. He pleaded not guilty. 
 
 Defense attorney Ellis Faught Jr., who first represented Winters 35 years ago on a hunting violation, told the judge that an undercover FBI agent who spent months building a case against Winters had witnessed only talk. 
 
 But Wilson didn't accept that. 
 
 "This is not just talk," the judge said. "There were, in fact, destructive devices found and sold." 
 
 Winters talked about booby traps and stashes of weapons he had around his house at 3032 Williams Blvd., according to an FBI affidavit. He also discussed elaborate plans to kill government agents in the event that they raided his property. 
 
 The FBI had tried to arrest Winters on Monday as he was driving near Durant High School in east Hillsborough County, but he sped away. 
 
 Prosecutor Donald Hansen told the judge that agents exercised caution because Winters' two grandchildren were with him. Eventually, he let them out and then abandoned the vehicle and ran into the brush. 
 
 On Tuesday, the FBI announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to Winters' capture, calling him "armed and dangerous." 
 
 "It could have been a catastrophe had he not turned himself in," attorney Faught said. 
 
 The surrender process began with a phone call just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to Faught. 
 
 Winters' 26-year-old daughter, Tracey Winters, arranged to meet the attorney at his office. Once there, she said her father wanted to surrender, Faught said. They picked him up in the general area of his home, several miles southeast of Brandon. 
 
 "He got in the car immediately, and we didn't stop anywhere," Faught said. "We went on State Road 60 all the way in. I just wanted to make sure to get to the FBI office as fast as we could without incident." 
 
 Patty Ryan can be reached at [email protected] or (813) 226-3382. ||||| SAN FRANCISCO — Quick: In the event of a zombie apocalypse, how would you make it out of New York City alive? 
 
 If you're like most New Yorkers, you probably have no idea. But a small group of folks in the city are gearing up for the next doomsday scenario by prepping survival gear, planning escape routes, and training to get out of New York City — even by inflatable kayak if necessary. 
 
 These urban doomsday preppers look very different from the stereotype of the rural, gun-toting conservative depicted on shows such as "Doomsday Castle," Anna Maria Bounds, a sociologist at Queens College, City University of New York, said on Monday (Aug. 18) here at the 109th annual American Sociological Association meeting. 
 
 Instead of creating a self-sustaining fortress for their families, urban survivalists focus on getting out quickly. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End] 
 
 "They simply don't have the space to build a bunker," Bounds told Live Science. 
 
 Urban survivalists also worry less about government conspiracies and end-of-days scenarios, and instead plan for threats, such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters, that have already materialized, Bounds said. 
 
 Urban survival 
 
 Bounds first became interested in urban survival after experiencing firsthand the disarray in New York after Sept. 11, and then again during Hurricane Sandy. 
 
 She and her colleagues began studying and attending meetings of the NYC Preppers, a group of people who help train others to survive emergencies ranging from terrorist attacks to hurricanes to a global pandemic. An upcoming meeting, for instance, is focusing on how to deal with a potential Ebola pandemic. 
 
 The researchers soon noticed that these "urban preppers" look very different from the pop-culture depiction of survivalists: The armed, white, male, conservative Christian militia members who fear the government, she said. 
 
 Urban preppers usually don't own guns, their political views are all over the map, and they are often people of color, Bounds said. Many have seen firsthand, in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, how long it can take for local and federal government agencies to restore order, she said. 
 
 Urban survivalist culture also overlaps with sustainability and homesteading culture. Many preppers are interested in organic and local foods, farmers' markets and the reduction of toxic chemicals. Some meetings, for instance, have focused on such things as how to make deodorant and laundry detergent at home, she said. 
 
 Bug out 
 
 Few New Yorkers are going to cram their fifth-floor walkup with 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of food (one estimate of how much food a person would need to eat for a year). So survivalists focus on getting out of the city fast. 
 
 One simple step is to make sure the car (if you have one) is always filled with gas and that medical prescriptions are always filled. Urbanites should also look around their apartments and figure out what would work in different emergencies, Bounds said. For instance, is the stove gas or electric? What services would a power outage eliminate? 
 
 Another essential for a mass New York exodus is to have a "bug-out" bag ready. This bag is typically a backpack filled with several days' worth of survival gear that weighs between 20 and 25 pounds (9 to 11 kg). Typical items in a bug-out bag include water filtration systems, food and water, face masks and goggles to protect against airborne hazards, compasses and duct tape. Preppers go on long treks during all seasons to make sure they can carry them for extended periods, Bounds said. [See The Items Needed for a Bug Out Pack] 
 
 Urbanites should also plan their escape route, which includes knowing how to evacuate a tall apartment building when the power goes out, and how to get out on foot, Bounds said. 
 
 Manhattan is an island with just nine bridges and four tunnels off the island, and a workday population of more than 3.1 million, which means there could be several chokepoints in the event of a disaster, she said. Some people even have inflatable kayaks on hand just in case. The best escape routes will depend on someone's origin and destination, but preppers often talk about the Catskills or even Upstate New York as potential safe havens, Bounds said. 
 
 Either way, it's important to have a plan and to be self-sufficient — something that may not come naturally to many New Yorkers, Bounds said. 
 
 "What you have to understand about New Yorkers is we're used to convenience and we're used to immediate gratification," Bounds said. "So to get our arms around the idea that we may have to be roughing it? Roughing it, for us, is not having takeout." 
 
 Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| Martin H. Winters has to tell where at least 30 illegally bought semi­automatic rifles are. 
 
 TAMPA — Doomsday prepper Martin Howard Winters, the subject of a June manhunt in eastern Hillsborough County, admits in a signed plea agreement that he illegally designed and owned destructive devices. 
 
 Winters, jailed without bail since his June 18 surrender to the FBI, is the latest of six people in a federal gun investigation to strike a deal with prosecutors. 
 
 Under its terms, he must disclose the location of at least 30 semiautomatic rifles obtained through straw buyers. The government would drop two existing charges and not prosecute him for the straw purchases. 
 
 The 55-year-old Valrico man led a group known as the River Otter Preppers, which advocated survival preparations in advance of an end-times event foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation, court records state. 
 
 An undercover FBI agent reported that Winters talked of buried guns, booby traps and his plans to kill government agents if they raided his property. 
 
 Winters is scheduled to enter a formal guilty plea Oct. 2 in U.S. District Court in Tampa. The offenses are punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 
 
 Co-defendant Michael Bonta, 49, who also signed an agreement, is expected to plead guilty to making destructive devices. His plea agreement states that he made about 20 devices that Winters called "rod holders." 
 
 The devices, according to court records, were designed to function as booby traps and could fire 12-gauge shotgun shells. 
 
 He made them without getting a proper federal permit and then didn't register them, the government alleged. Destructive devices and some other weapons — such as machine guns, silen­cers and short-barrel shotguns — are federally controlled. 
 
 Four others caught up in the investigation have pleaded guilty and are to be sentenced Oct. 31. 
 
 James Bruce Beebe, 56, and Jason Michael Swain, 33, each admitted to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Beebe's felony conviction, a California robbery, dated back to 1977. Swain was convicted of burglary and grand theft in 2007. 
 
 Desiree Beebe, 23, and Nicholas Ryan Hall, 23, each pleaded guilty to making a false written statement when buying a firearm, pretending the weapons were for their own use. 
 
 The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Hansen, and Winters was represented by attorney Ellis Faught Jr. 
 
 Contact Patty Ryan at (813) 226-3382 or pryan@tampabay.com.
– New Yorkers are preparing for "doomsday" in a way that doesn't involve guns, bunkers, or earmarked pages in Revelations, LiveScience reports. Survivalists at one group, NYC Preppers, are planning to safely flee the city in case of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. "They simply don't have the space to build a bunker," says sociologist Anna Bounds, who is studying the survivalists. She says they devise escape routes (including by kayak), keep the car filled with gas, and figure out which home appliances are likely to work in different emergencies. They also take long walks to practice carrying a "bug-out" bag, which weighs between 20 and 25 pounds and contains survival gear like water, food, face masks, compasses, duct tape, and water filtration systems. Just who are these people? Their political views vary, but they tend to be people of color who have seen disasters like Hurricane Katrina and know how slowly governments can respond to emergencies. They're often into sustainability and local foods, which Bounds admits is a far cry from survival in nature: "What you have to understand about New Yorkers is we're used to convenience and we're used to immediate gratification," she says. "Roughing it, for us, is not having takeout." By contrast, the FBI says a Doomsday prepper in Florida has admitted to stockpiling weapons and creating boobytraps in preparation for a Biblical apocalypse, the Tampa Bay Times reports. In exchange for turning himself in, Martin Winters received Gatorade, fries, cheeseburgers, and dry shoes, says another Times article.