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"FacebookPinterest\n\nIf you\u2019re curious as to whether or not an Extreme Kidnapping can scare you, my answer would be a decided yes. In addition to the moment of doubt that I detailed in the final piece that ran in GQ, hiring someone to kidnap you causes you to consider the very real and lingering specter of incompetence. Weeks before being kidnapped, I worried that Adam Thick, my kidnapper, might get careless with a bowie knife and slit my throat by accident. Then I worried about his henchmen. What if Extreme Kidnapping\u2019s HR department was less than thorough in vetting its candidates? After all, you don\u2019t find MIT grads entering this field of work. To quote Adam, &amp;quot;What I look for in a henchman is the ability to commit crimes without being a pussy. If you\u2019ve never done dirt in your life, then there is a good chance your gonna suck at this.&amp;quot;\n\nTo be an extreme kidnapper, there must be some sizable part of you that likes the idea of abducting people and holding them hostage. This concerned me. Though he swears he cannot abide sadists, Adam isn\u2019t afraid to hire people with criminal backgrounds to be his henchmen. You can understand my fear that these people would not follow every last detail of our plan. Thankfully, Cody and Romeo roughed me around just a little bit before dropping me back into civilization.\n\nAnd now, a few more extra tidbits that got left out of the article...\n\n I would make a terrible blind person. I was blindfolded for most of my captivity (though the blindfold was less a blindfold than it was one of those sleepy masks you wear on a redeye flight; I peeked under it many times). I already knew I was a clumsy person, but being blindfolded amplified that a hundred times over. It was as if I had just purchased a pair of legs and was using them for the first time. Getting out of the car at the kidnappers\u2019 hideout, Romeo pushed me forward and I took very short baby steps because I was afraid there was a bottomless pit in front of me. But Romeo kept pushing my torso faster than my feet were going, which caused me to fall forward over and over again. &amp;quot;Goddammit,&amp;quot; said Romeo, &amp;quot;will you move already?&amp;quot; And whenever I had to get up from the basement floor, it took me several seconds to figure out how to go about it since I was handcuffed. The henchmen laughed at me as I tried to do this. I heard &amp;quot;What the fuck is wrong with you?&amp;quot; more than once. At the end of my captivity they led me back up the stairs and I walked directly into a door.\n\n&amp;quot;Oops,&amp;quot; Cody said, &amp;quot;that door\u2019s ajar.&amp;quot; Thanks for the heads up, Cody.\n\nI don\u2019t think innocent rubes like me have a very good idea of the remarkable ease involved in torturing people. All it takes is slight, prolonged discomfort and you can quite easily induce agony in the average person. For example: Handcuffs. Handcuffs are a form of torture. The handcuffs Cody used on me were hinge cuffs. No chain. They only fled one way and dug into my wrists all night long. And these were in front of me (I asked for this because of problems with my back; Cody cuffed me from behind at first anyway before I gently asked him to reconsider). Cuff a man behind his back and you\u2019ve essentially put him in a stress position. Cuff a man, or put him in an empty room for hours or days on end, or keep him sopping wet... all of that is torture. Mild torture, but torture all the same.\n\nA couple times, I twisted my wrist inside the cuffs by accident and had no way of twisting it back. I have no idea how I was able to twist it to begin with. Every time Cody fid my cuffs, it took him five minutes because they were such cheap pieces of shit. &amp;quot;Goddamn Korean cuffs,&amp;quot; he said. Don\u2019t buy Korean handcuffs unless you hate the person you\u2019re cuffing.\n\nWhen I was first brought into Extreme Kidnapping\u2019s hideout, Adam took off my blindfold for a moment and showed me a small red canister. Pepper spray. We did not discuss pepper spray. &amp;quot;Okay Drew,&amp;quot; he said, &amp;quot;This is police strength riot control pepper spray\u20141.5 million Scoville units. You\u2019re gonna take your blindfold off, walk down the stairs, then put the blindfold back on. If you deviate from that in any way, you get pepper sprayed in the fucking face. Okay?&amp;quot; I did as I was told. That pepper spray scared the shit out of me. Make sure you have all your torture bases covered before getting kidnapped. \n\nThis will make no sense at all, but part of the reason I never uttered the safe word during my captivity\u2014apart from the fact that I would essentially be skipping out on my job\u2014was that I felt compelled to prove myself to my captors. I didn\u2019t want them thinking I was a pussy, even though that was clearly the case. I wanted to see this all the way through. That\u2019s a dumb guy thing. I can\u2019t believe I wanted Cody to know I was hard. I am not hard. At all. I\u2019m pathetic. I thought that I would be kidnapped for 24 hours, but when they dumped me off after a mere fourteen (which is PLENTY), I thought that maybe I had done something wrong. Maybe I was a shitty prisoner. KIDNAP ME LONGER, GUYS! I\u2019M TOUGH ENOUGH! In my exit interview, I asked Adam if I was the biggest pussy he ever kidnapped. Here is his formal assessment:\n\n&amp;quot;I\u2019ve seen whiners before and I\u2019ve had people say their safe word, so all in all, you were a moderate. On the whiny side of the scale you scored above average, meaning you whined about stuff more than the avg. client. BUT, you never said your safe word either, so that counts for something in that you completed your adventure without opting out. Some whiners do it just to get on our nerves and irritate us, to force us to act, I got the sense that you were whining not to initiate a response, but to get better accommodations! lol\n\n &amp;quot;I wouldn\u2019t consider you a pussy. You made it through all right.&amp;quot;\n\nBOOSH! Not a pussy! HIGH FIVE!\n\nAt first, I was set to be kidnapped in Pontiac, but Adam discouraged this due to the following incident: &amp;quot;One time we got in a altercation with a off duty Detroit cop in a shopping plaza while waiting for our mark to come out...the cop took off and called in the Pontiac PD because he saw ski mask wearing men creeping around the lot and we got surrounded by a whole shift of police; 7 cruisers, 5 Pontiac PD, 2 Oakland county sheriffs, all got out and advanced on the car with guns drawn...that was a real dicey situation,very tense...surreal even...like in a movie...I was ordered to throw my keys out the window and get out....i told everyone to take their masks off\u2014stay in the car...I got out and explained everything, back then our fame, uh, i mean notoriety was at its zenith so even the sheriffs deputies had heard of us and helped back up my story to pontiac pd who wasn\u2019t buying it at first...once they found out what we were about, they let us go, but with a warning not to mess around in Pontiac anymore&amp;quot; \n\nOne tip for getting kidnapped: Do not ask for things. The more things you ask for, the more excuses you give your captors to visit you and kick the living shit out of you. I tried my best to avoid asking for things, but I started off the evening with no bottle to piss in. When I asked for a bottle, I got smacked. Then I got a tiny Poland Spring bottle that could barely accommodate my dickhole. When I tried to pee in it, some of the outgoing piss nailed the rim of the bottle and caused a fine piss mist to fill the air. The bottle leaked with relative ease all over my clothes and mattress. Whenever I asked for a subsequent bottle, I got the beatdown (though I did end up getting what I wanted, not unlike a child willing to brave punishment to get another cookie). So if you don\u2019t like getting your ass kicked, piss yourself. \n\nThere was a tiny invisible pinprick somewhere on my mattress, causing it to leak air almost imperceptibly. After hours in the basement, staring at the small window near the ceiling to try to ascertain if dawn was breaking, I realized that my back was now touching the frozen basement floor. I was shivering uncontrollably. \n\nI could catch a cold!\n\nSo I called out for a blanket. That was the final straw. Back in the chair I went. A fresh piece of duct tape went on my mouth. Cody grabbed my foot and ripped my shoe off.\n\n&amp;quot;I\u2019m gonna cut his fucking toe off,&amp;quot; he said to Romeo.\n\nMmmmmmmph! Mmmmmph!\n\n&amp;quot;I\u2019m gonna cut your toe off if you don\u2019t talk!&amp;quot;\n\nI was more than willing to talk, but my mouth was taped shut. I desperately tried to explain the problem.\n\nUMPH CUNT TUUUURGH!!!!\n\nCody realized I was correct and let go. But man, that was a tense few minutes.\n\nAlso, if you get fake kidnapped, do not try to break free. Adam told me that would cost extra, and that there would be &amp;quot;consequences&amp;quot;. I did not want consequences. Also, I was probably safer with Adam than I was walking handcuffed along a deserted highway. \n\nMy kidnapping was unique in the sense that I HAD to be kidnapped within an exact time frame. But if you live in Detroit and hire EK, you can essentially have them take you by surprise, planning your kidnapping and then having it happen MONTHS later, when you least suspect it. I imagine that anticipation is part of the payoff for many people. \n\nWeapons: In my limited experience, your first instinct upon seeing a weapon is to GET AWAY. Any way you can. Even when I was taped to the chair, every other part of me worked feverishly to keep away from that fucking blowtorch. All weapons induce flinching. I expect all future Jason Statham films to note this. \n\nMy favorite exchange of the night was when the kidnappers were trying to figure out what to do with me.\n\nROMEO: Man, we should sell his ass to GQ!\n\nADAM: What does that even mean? He works for them.\n\nROMEO: Just, like, sell his ass!\n\nI asked Adam what his strangest request was from a client: &amp;quot;One guy wanted us to BBQ him over a spit. That one is always stuck in my mind...at first I thought he was joking, then when he began to elaborate and I was actually running the logistics on it, I determined it was too risky and too many variables that couldn\u2019t be controlled, so I told him \u2019sorry\u2019, we can\u2019t do that. Turns out, years later I found out its some kind of fetish, and there is actually a lot of people out there that do this to each other...for fun! They got basters an shit, basting mofo\u2019s in butter sauce over a motorized spit! I\u2019ve had hundreds of crazy requests...beat me with a pool cue, plug me, wrap me in saran wrap an ship me in a box to Mexico or sell me to traffickers...man, I\u2019ve heard it all.&amp;quot; So let that be a reminder to NEVER date a roto fetishist. \n\nSpeaking of fetishes, Extreme Kidnapping has to walk a very fine line. Obviously, the only people out there who REALLY want to be kidnapped are mostly bondage fetishists, but Adam has to constantly make sure that his business doesn\u2019t verge into straight-up BDSM. &amp;quot;If it\u2019s of the mild variety, like the bondage fetishists for example, I\u2019m cool with it. They like to be tied up, tight, and inescapable...no problem. We can tie you up tight and inescapable. That\u2019s part of the game. If you happen to be getting off on it, keep it to yourself, because my crew and I don\u2019t want to know about it.&amp;quot; \n\nBy the way, Adam is also a former Detroit-area hip hop artist who recorded under the name Mr. Scrillion. Here is a photo. I hope that octopus got a decent contact high. \n\nAdam on the current state of his business: &amp;quot;The state of the business is active, but, its not booming. Very few businesses are in this economy, and for something as exotic as my business, its all about location. Unfortunately, I live in metro Detroit and have for most of my adult life. Detroit isn\u2019t exactly a mecca of anything these days and is very economically depressed...that said, I get calls and emails from all over the world for work...but its simply not cost effective to globe trot just to do a job....the only way it could work is if I opened branches and that is easier said than done. I have a standing offer to go to Vegas and get started out there but I\u2019ve been reluctant. I know that certain cities would be much better for this enterprise than MI, cities like LA, Vegas, ATL and NYC. But my family and friends are in MI...and I\u2019ve had a long run with EK at this point, I\u2019m at the stage now where I\u2019m ready for a reality show, and the book that I\u2019ve been saying I\u2019m gonna write for 4 years now. I\u2019ve been told by numerous TV people that there is a movie in all this too...&amp;quot;\n\nWhen I got dropped off at my motel, the kidnappers accidentally let my motel room key slip under the seat of my rental car. I couldn\u2019t find it. So I had to ask the clerk to let me in my room even though she had just witnessed me get thrown out of a car with a fucking blindfold on. She let me in anyway, no questions asked. Motel clerks see a LOT of odd shit. It\u2019s hard to faze them. \n\nBy the way, one upside to being kidnapped is the post-kidnap meal. After I got kidnapped, I ate sushi for lunch at a nice joint in the Detroit airport (I know that doesn\u2019t sound possible, but I swear it was a very pleasant place). I ordered ALL the sushi. It never tasted so good. It\u2019s almost worth getting abducted and tortured just for that meal.\n\nFinally, this is full text of the email that Jeff Schilling sent me about his seven month kidnapping ordeal in the Philippines\u2014we excerpted a portion of it in the story\u2014and about people who pay to be kidnapped:\n\n&amp;quot;My gut reactions are: 1) it\u2019s a callous waste of money; and 2) you\u2019ll never have anything close to the &amp;quot;authentic&amp;quot; experience. While I was extremely fortunate to escape, far too many people are not so lucky. After I escaped, another group of individuals, including three Americans, was kidnapped in the Philippines by the same group of terrorists that kidnapped me. The FBI called me up and asked if I would be willing to speak with one of the families. The terrorist had claimed they beheaded one of the American hostages. I told the family that until there was confirmation their loved one had in fact been killed, they should presume he was alive. Several months later, a femur was found and the US military forensic experts in Hawaii who are responsible for identifying the remains of MIA service personnel, confirmed the femur belonged to the murdered American. I have never spoken with the family again because I feel a tremendous guilt for offering them the false hope that their loved one would return home. Of the three Americans, only one returned home alive. Paying to be kidnapped turns this, and countless other tragedies, into a sporting affair for people who apparently cannot find a better way to spend their money.\n\n&amp;quot;As for the issue of authenticity, not knowing when or if you will be free is the principle problem you face as a victim of kidnapping. The most important asset you have is your inner strength. Your inner strength is what enables you to endure and eventual overcome your circumstances. It allows you to remain hopefully that you will one day be free, and to face the ever present possibility of death without surrendering to your kidnappers. If your inner strength is broken and you fall into despair, you will have given up the one thing that is truly yours, something your kidnappers cannot touch. The discomforts of being kidnapped, being mistreated, inadequate amounts of food and water, poor living conditions, etc. are only material circumstances which are not as difficult to endure as the spiritual and psychological challenges of being kidnapped. Knowing you will be free removes the spiritual challenge from being kidnapped and turns it into a bad vacation.\n\n&amp;quot;If people really want to know what it\u2019s like to be kidnapped, watch the video of Julie Moss\u2019s finish in the 1982 Hawaii Triathlon. Julie Moss was in first place, but 100 yards from the finish line she lost control of her body. She collapsed. She tried to stand but fell again. Finally she was able to stand, but every time she attempted to run she would fall. In the end, she could no longer walk or even stand, but her spirit allowed her to crawl across the finish line. Although she finished second, Julie Moss is the enduring image of what it means to be a triathlete. As a victim of kidnapping you have no control over your body. You are forced to find your inner strength and crawl across the finish line whatever it may be. If someone wants to know what its like to be kidnapped, the safest why to have a truly authentic experience would be to push yourself physically until you hit &amp;quot;the wall,&amp;quot; and then keep going.\n\n&amp;quot;If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.&amp;quot;\n\nHere now is the video of Julie Moss in that famous Hawaii Triathlon."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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