# Hostages and Getaway Cars
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hostages-and-getaway-cars/133546
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 23, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hostages-and-getaway-cars/133546 "2002-10-23T17:02:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Riboflavin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riboflavin)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hostages-and-getaway-cars/133546/1 "2002-10-23T17:02:14Z")
I know this happens a lot in movies, but I’ve also seen it happen IRL (the recent German hostage-taker, for example). Someone will go nuts and take hostages in some local building. They’ll sit around in the building and make various rants to the media, negotiators, etc. and eventually demand something like a getaway car, helicoptor, etc. What I’m wondering is how often does the person manage to get away in the getaway vehicle? I mean, sure, they successfully get some food for themselves and the hostages while the situation is on, but it seems to me that it would be virtually impossible to actually get away in a police supplied getaway vehicle.
I’m not interested in things like international hijackings, where the person goes off to another country, just the ones that are pretty much local.
---
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hostages-and-getaway-cars/133546/2 "2002-10-23T19:25:22Z")
No.
[http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9612/31/mexico.robbery/](http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9612/31/mexico.robbery/)
> [@](#):
>
> December 31, 1996
> Web posted at: 2:10 p.m. EST (1910 GMT)
>
> MEXICO CITY (CNN) – A bank robber who held up to 25 people hostage was shot dead in a real-life drama that was broadcast live on Mexican television.
>
> \< snip \>
>
> Ruiz was shot in the head Monday evening as he entered the back seat of an escape car with the bank manager and another employee, police said. At least two shots were fired.
>
> Before the shooting, Ruiz negotiated for the getaway car and came to the door of the bank holding the two hostages at gunpoint, waiving a pair of pistols at police, the hostages and reporters gathered outside the bank.
>
> Police apparently distracted Ruiz by screaming at him. Suddenly, two policeman threw open the rear doors and pulled down the seated hostages, while one of them grabbed Ruiz’s gun. A third policeman fired from behind through the rear windshield.
Yes.
[http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020403/5/lga2.html](http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020403/5/lga2.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Wednesday April 3 1:03 PM EST
>
> Masked Gunmen Surrender in Ukraine After Wild Ride
> By Serhiy Karazy
>
> RIVNE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Three masked gunmen chased across eastern Europe by police after botching a bank robbery in Germany released the last of their hostages and surrendered Wednesday in Ukraine, officials said.
>
> \< snip \>
>
> The drama began after a neighbor of the bank in Wrestedt saw gunmen pushing a bank employee into the building and sounded the alarm, which brought police to the scene.
>
> But the officers held back from storming the bank after the robbers took three hostages and threatened to shoot one.
>
> “The hostage-takers emphasized their demands by raising a weapon to the head of one of the hostages and threatening to shoot,” a police spokesman said earlier.
>
> The gunmen then escaped from the bank with guns blazing in a silver-colored car with two female bank employees as hostages, after freeing the head of the bank branch unharmed.