A few months ago I heard on the news that a man was arrested, but the poliece didn't know he was an escapologist, and when they stopped to get some gas for the car, he got out of the handcuffs and tried to get away!

Did they shoot at you, or just pistol whip you? We had a long thread about the idea of this a while back. We all concluded that what you did probably wasn't too smart.

Cliff - I don't think it was Mr "ghostgaff" that did this just he heard it on the news!

Of course if I were a reporter (thank goodness I'm not there would be twice as many typos in the paper! OR news braodcast! Can you have typos in news broadcasts?) I would say that any bad dude that got out of cuffs was an "excape arist" they use it to mean anyone who got out of something! I heard the term used for something a while ago that was NOT an escape of any sort - the person just got lucks - somehting like a light fitting dropped off their ceiling and missed them.

You know how press are (and aren't we glad they are like it makes our life easier!)

This also happened in 1998 in Tampa, FL. The man killed 2 detectives with their own 9mm, and a highway patrolman before eventually shooting himself.

Locally, back in the 80s, a group in a transport van broke their handcuffs by jamming the swivel lug into the hole of the seatbelt latch and levering.

I wrote a letter to the editor suggesting the police use hinged cuffs for transport use.

Follow-up inquiry netted me a front-page feature article in the Sunday paper.

I remember ages ago, when I was still in Secondary School, a policeman came for a demonstration and had me onstage to show how riot tags (those zippy plastic things), were inescapable.

I managed to get out of it while he was facing everyone else and talking, using my school badge as a lever to lower the plasticky bit that uh, clips on to the other plasticky bit.

I don't know the technical terms for them, but I think you know what I'm talking about.

The policeman managed to recover from the surprise by saying something like, "Normally, in a riot situation, we'd use those in a long string, so you'd be tied to someone else. It'd be more difficult to escape from that.*


Mind you, if I was actually caught by the police for doing something illegal (which I wouldn't be doing), I wouldn't want to incriminate myself any further by escaping!

Texas Penal Code § 9.52. PREVENTION OF ESCAPE FROM CUSTODY. The use of
force to prevent the escape of an arrested person from custody is
justifiable when the force could have been employed to effect the
arrest under which the person is in custody, except that a guard
employed by a correctional facility or a peace officer is justified
in using any force, including deadly force, that he reasonably
believes to be immediately necessary to prevent the escape of a
person from the correctional facility.

So, in Texas, if you attempt to escape from an arrest, AND you don't have a weapon, you will probably just get tackled and 'secured'.

If you attempt to escape from jail/prison, you will be shot, probably killed, even if you are running away, flinging your empty hands in the air, and screaming 'I'm unarmed, don't shoot me.'.

Imagine the police arrest you (for any reason) and you have a handcuff key (or pick or shim or ...) in your pocket, should you tell the officer right away so there is no misunderstanding ?

Any time you are arrested, always tell the cop up front about anything you are carrying. Even if it is for nothing, he will appreciate your honesty, and save you grief later.

If you have something specifically designed to defeat restraints, then yes. Anything that an officer might consider a threat to the officer, the suspect, or the public should be probably be disclosed. In some states, it's illegal to have a handcuff key in your possession after you are in custody. But you don't have to say, "I have a bobby pin, a staple, and a banana that I can pick these cuffs with, officer."

Not sure about the laws in Brussels.

In the US, once you're under arrest, disclose any items to the officer, invoke your right to counsel, and then stop talking (invoking your right to silence.)

Of course, all of the members in our escape artist community here support our law enforcement officers and wouldn't do anything that might jeopardize their safety. We also try and follow all the laws of our respective states/countries so that we can avoid this issue to begin with.

[quote]On 2009-06-18 16:02, Doc Auchter wrote:
But you don't have to say, "I have a bobby pin, a staple, and a banana that I can pick these cuffs with, officer."

Bananas don't work as well as squash, IMO.

I once tried to use a banana to pick a handcuff; it turned into a 'squash.'

I think anybody who can get out of cuffs has fantasized about doing this in that type of situation. I didn't realize anyone was dumb enough to actually try it.

[quote]On 2009-06-18 17:33, jay leslie wrote:


May not be good for picking handcuffs - but have seen them used as a hammer! (post if you know how)

Yes Dave, I have seen that demo too.

Bannana as a hammer ? to hammer what ? a nail ?

Just freeze it before

Oh you saw it too!

They freeze it with well normally liquid nitrogen. Then yep a nail will be hammered.......

or you could ferment the fruit make a coctail with some high alcohol content and get hammered that way as well!