This is a bizarre story...

Authorities continue to search for a man they say kidnapped a 44-year-old Ber-thoud man and a 32-year-old Fort Collins woman.

The couple say they were hiking Saturday when a masked man threatened them and then tied them to trees.

SWAT teams from the Boulder County Sherriff's Office and the Longmont Police Department are continuing the search for an armed suspect they say kidnapped the two while they were hiking west of the Peak to Peak Highway.

The complete news article is here and there is more info in the 3 minute video segment in the top right corner of the page.

Yeah, bizarre is right.

Hard to say what is going on.

Camouflaged Rambo wanna-be outlaw fondling a gun in the woods stumbles into a couple of hikers and fires a shot to impress them. Feeling embarrassed, perhaps running from the law, he figures he will tie them up to give himself time to get away. He flees. They get away. Authorities show up. Could be.

Or maybe a bored couple come up with a story about a armed man who ties them up hoping to gain some notoriety and press.

Not enough information to say for sure what happened.

Good news is that no matter what happened nobody seemed to get seriously hurt.

"Authorities say the man freed himself, ran to a populated area and telephoned authorities. Officials say the assailant released the woman, who was found at the car the couple left beside a road."

The assailant threatened them, fired a shot, then lets the guy run off to get the law, and he turns the woman loose.

I think there's more to this story... and 'story' it may well be.

Sue

Looks like the police have arrested a suspect.

Boulder County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 42-year-old transient this afternoon on suspicion he abducted two local hikers at gunpoint near Nederland last weekend.

Joseph Scott Carter had been camping in the forest for a couple of weeks, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

He was found near the Peak to Peak Highway this afternoon and matched the description given by the man and woman he allegedly accosted at rifle point.

Allowing a guy with a rifle to tie me up to a tree is not the way it would have gone down were I one of the hikers. It's got to be more than awkward for a person to manage a rifle in one hand and tie you to a tree with the other. Especially if there is one of him and two of you. It sounds like the hikers weren't prepared to take advantage of that vulnerable time for their attacker. I would have.

I don't know if I would use the term "often" given the great numbers of people who go into the ONF in relation to the much smaller numbers of reported encounters over a long period of time. Yes, there have been a few egregious cases of assaults and murder, at least two made the national news, but over a similar amount of time many otherwise considered peaceful small town have seen worse.

The fact is that thousands of hikers and campers go into the ONF and other state forests unarmed and they experience nothing but peaceful relations with the people they meet.

I would also be leery about trying out your kung-fu on a person holding a gun. As it was everyone made it out relatively unharmed. Toss in a few sudden moves and perceived threat by the person with the gun and the balance between not desiring to kill people, he obviously had some qualms about killing people because he clearly could have slaughtered them without difficulty, and the advantages of not leaving witnesses behind may have gone the wrong way.

The option of violent resistance would have shifted if the man clearly stated or implied an intention to kill them. The statistics say that an attacker that attempts to get you into a vehicle will kill you. Once you get in a car the odds of survival approach zero. In that case violent resistance and/or fleeing is pretty much the only option.

As it was, considering the outcome where nobody got seriously injured, avoidance of violent resistance was the right choice.

No, the eventual outcome does not validate the hikers response. They might have survived DESPITE doing nothing, not BECAUSE of it. Nobody will ever know the answer to that one.

Me, I would interpret trying to tie me up to a tree while holding a rifle on me to be a true life threatening situation, deserving of the most violent of defenses if needed. This includes terminating the aggressors life if required. Others can certainly disagree with me, that's fine, and the discussion is welcomed. Some believe that passivity is the solution to force, others believe force should be met with equal or greater force. People have lived, and died, utilizing both responses. Conclusions drawn from anecdotes and single case examples of what may have worked in one specific situation are meaningless and dangerous.

I concur especially if the assailant started to mentioning the words 'squeal like a pig' as he was attempting to tie me up to a tree.

If it were me out hiking with my wife (this kidnapping/hostage thing went down about 10 miles from my house), there is no way I would "escape" and run off leaving my wife in the hands of this madman. Mr. Madman, once he noticed I was gone, should be very worried about his life expectancy. I'm not a Rambo type of person, but I sure wouldn't abandon my wife in the woods and just hope for the best by running away and making a phone call. It boggles my mind that someone would actually do that.

I'm with haertig.

Being threatened with a rifle by a random guy in the woods means that your life is in danger and there's not much chance of a good outcome. So fight like your life depends on it. Because it does.

I live on the Peak to Peak. In summer it is not uncommon for homeless men to come up from the cities. As we know, many homeless are mentaly ill. Usualy they just break into un occupied cabins. They found one guy living in a cave full of stolen tools. They don't stay long. Too cold up here and no free meals like they get in Boulder.
Leo

As soon as one shot is fired all bets are off. It will be him or me. And as for leaving a lady behind, no way.

I'm with haertig, too. And I wouldn't wait for a shot to be fired, either. That first shot could be into someone's head, and considering my somewhat abrasive personality, it might be mine.

As soon as someone threatens me or mine with a weapon, the Marquess of Queensberry Rules are off, and I'm going after them with everything I've got or can grab. You have to be really, really good to play the game with a different set of rules than your attacker. Kind of stupid, too.

My plan, such as it is, is to appear quiet and timid, seem to acquiesce to initial commands, and the minute they are distracted, to attack them. I'm perfectly fine with kicking knees (stomp-kick, not ballet-pointy-toe kick), kicking ribs hard enough to do some damage once they're down, stomping on a throat, and doing some serious injury to Junior and the Twins. Then I would get really serious and bash their head in.

Like the cops in L.A. used to tell my friend who worked with them: "Make sure there's only one story to tell."

And the NEXT person I would go after would be the SO-CALLED 'man' who ran off 'to get help'. But I would probably attempt to be a little more... ah... circumspect about that.

Sue

That sounds like the fight scene in the kitchen at the Guest House Paradiso

+1 on Susan's brand of aggression against an attacker.

Cracking knees is not for the squeamish though, if you're making a plan to disable an attacker I suggest some practice, and make sure you will carry it out if the time comes: I have seen a self-defense school simulate an effective knee kick with a wood 'leg-knee' stuffed inside a pair of pants, they stand up the dummy and they take turns kicking the knee out. Think too about disarming your assailant - following the knee kick you still have to take away their weapon, don't rely on them dropping it or being so distracted that they wouldn't still shoot you.

So make a plan, visualize it all the way through disarming your attacker, and consider running through the scenario and your response (sudden / surprise aggression) in an evening at least at a self-defense class, which should be in your area somewhere.

My plan is more like "distract with your left hand, draw your own firearm with your right hand". Knee/family_jewel kicking and head smashing with rocks might be a good fallback though.

On the knee damage... I was shocked at how little actual force was required to hurt me when my 50lb dog made a running U-turn near me and bumped the outside of my knee with her hindquarters.

She literally immobilized me without really trying, she was just playing with another dog. I remained standing, in pain, and shifted my weight to my other leg. I couldn't take a single step. Nothing to lean on. I stood there for a long time (maybe three minutes), thinking it would improve. Then the neighbor came out her back door, and I yelled for her to go into my house and get my mother's walker. And that's how I slowly got into the house. The pain eased after an hour or so, but I felt it with every step for over a week.

That incident made me realize how easy it would be to incapacitate someone that way. Guys can protect the family jewels and maybe even grab your foot if they're quick, but they can't do much to protect their knees.

Sue

"That sounds like the fight scene in the kitchen at the Guest House Paradiso."

Hmmm.... I should watch it and maybe get some tips!

Oh, Netflix doesn't have it. Rats!

Sue