Noooooooo! Honey! It will affect your sleep. Maybe.
Save 50% on jewelry?
Handle it in house using every shady connection I’ve got even if it means I spend every dime I have (including all the lottery winnings). I would make the kidnappers dying wish be that I had gone to the police.
TV franchise 
Why? From a cost\benefit standpoint, doesn’t it make more sense to leave the victim alive? In California, the penalty for kidnapping is light compared with murder. And murdering the victim makes it a death penalty case.
Letting the victim go doesn’t hurt you, leaving a body behind doesn’t help you.
Plus, if people think the kidnapped is going to be killed anyway, it serves as disincentive for the families to pay up.
Neither…I’d enjoy my new found wealth as a rich single guy.
Well, the kidnappers would probably worry about the released victim testifying and providing a lot of verbal evidence.
They cut off her ear. They Cut. Off. Her. Ear. :eek: :mad:
I’d probably have to rethink my lifestyle & probably my future, but then again… it is Gun Show Season…
…and I now have enough to afford Alan Dershowitz…
Game On.
Folks whose business is providing international security, including dealing with kidnap & ransom of expats, seem to think that paying a ransom immediately is a really bad idea.
Of course, their recommendation is to bring in specialists (like them!) to handle the negotiations. In the US, those specialists would seem to be the FBI; in Latin America or the Middle East, the cops are probably NOT a good idea.
Question - instead of actual cash could they go the route of a secret Swiss bank account or are those a myth?
aw shucks
What?
From what I think I remember having read, in countries where kidnapping is a business, it’s a business. The kidnappers don’t abuse or torture the kidnappees and if you pay, you get your loved one back. There, I’d pay.
In the US, I’d call the FBI.
Yep. Horrible as it is, those dudes are professional kidnappers, and it’s simply good business to return the victims unharmed- which is why they dont do crap like cutting ears off… at least not right away.
Since this sitrep is in the USA, and the kidnappers have already shown they are unprofessional, violent & sadistic - and the fact that the FBI is very very good at what they do- here I’d go to the FBI.
Apart from the dollar reference, there’s nothing in the OP that necessitates the hypo taking place in the US. Each poster should imagine it being wherever they actually live.
My wife & I have & do discuss this and have a plan.
The kids all know this plan and as it pertains to grand kids.
My siblings all know it.
As neither of our parents are still living, they have very little input. he he he
The important thing is that the actual decision has been made so we don’t need to think about it anymore. Everybody is on the same page.
IMO, these kinds of decisions should already be made and agreed on.
What made you make this plan?
When I got my first banking job, we were told on the second day of orientation what to do if one of our loved ones were kidnapped to pressure us into assisting a bank robber. Is your reason similar?
Convicted? I would easily spend $100 million tracking the kidnappers down, and seeing if one of their ears would be a suitable replacement for the damaged one.
For beginners.
Per the OP, tho: Cops, first. Maybe I can find them on the public dime.
I tell the bad guys, hey, return [whoever] with no further harm, and I’ll wire double what they asked for to whatever account they want. Otherwise, I will spend the entire amount of winnings tracking them down wherever they are, and having everyone in their entire families brutally murdered, every last cousin, inlaw, step, everyone.
Hey, I can be a badass when it’s hypothetical.
I call the cops.
I then hire mercenaries to track down the kidnappers for me so that I can extract my revenge, one square inch of skin at a time.