Spy Tips on Magnetic Sensors, Private Security, Hostage Taking, and more…
In any search-and-capture operation, you have to balance speed against planning. Once you locate your target, you have a hard choice to make take too much time planning, and your target gets away. Take too little time planning, and you get yourself killed.
Most commercial security systems use magnetic sensors. When a door opens, it breaks an electrical circuit and triggers the alarm, which means defeating the system is just a matter of keeping a magnet in contact with the sensor. Unfortunately, very security-conscious people often customize systems with less-visible sensors. Like a pressure plate in the floor that silently announces your presence and gives whoever’s inside a chance to do something about it.
Businesses often use independent contractors on jobs to contain costs and limit liability. Criminals do the same thing for similar reasons. Someone who just joined the team won’t expect an equal cut of whatever you’re stealing, and if they don’t know your plans, they can’t go to the cops.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when you begin to suspect your intelligence on an operation may have been wrong. Once you’re in, though, there’s not much you can do but keep your eyes open and figure out just how bad the situation is.
There’s a cold math to hostage-taking. Once someone dies, things get worse quickly. Because the penalty for killing one hostage is pretty much the same as the penalty for killing all of them. The key is keeping that first person alive, even if you have to bruise a few ribs to do it.
The ironic thing about infiltrating a group of criminals is that the only way to successfully be accepted. Is to actually be helpful. If you’re useless or lazy, you’ll probably wind up getting shot. You have to be the best little worker you can be. All to give yourself room to look for the best opportunity to destroy the people you’re working for.
To improvise a weapon, you have to understand the basic principle behind whatever you’re making. A gun, for example, is just a barrel and a firing pin while a time-delay bomb can be as simple as a corrosive chemical, an oxidizing agent, and something to keep them from mixing together long enough so you don’t blow your hands off.
If you need to redirect an airplane mid-flight and you can’t get to the airport, your best bet is probably the local TRACON relay station. Responsible for guiding aircraft until airport traffic control takes over, their job is to keep anything bad from happening mid-flight. Fortunately, their job is also to be nervous, so it doesn’t take much to spook them.
Anyone who’s used a cellphone near an alarm clock knows even minor interference disrupts radio signals. So if radio silence is your goal, you can create an electromagnet by running the current from your car’s electrical system through a tire iron wrapped with copper speaker wiring. It’s hard on your car’s audio system, but it’s a small price to pay for staying out of prison.
Wool or silk ties are considered higher-quality than the polyester variety. Polyester ties do have certain advantages, however. They’re less expensive and considerably more flammable than natural fibers, making them the tie of choice to ignite a gas tank.
In any kind of sabotage operation, the most important thing is keeping your enemy thinking you’re on his side. That means selling your story by any means necessary. While it may be painful and unpleasant, nothing sells loyalty like shedding a little blood for the cause.
When you need to get into a facility guarded by police, you have three options. You can go through them not an option if you don’t want a body count. You can go around them, which is tough if there’s a full surveillance team, or you can give them a reason to leave.
In trench warfare, a common practice is to dig a hole called a grenade sump. It works on a simple principle. When a grenade falls into your trench, you kick it into a deeper hole, which directs the force of the grenade upward. The same idea can work aboveground with large pieces of furniture.
Criminals often keep safe-houses to fall back to in case things go wrong. They know that once they get there, they can relax and let their guard down a little, which makes it a perfect place to send the cops after them.