Zip ties are little strips of plastic used to bind items together. I’m not sure who came up these suckers, but they are amazing things. They have a myriad of uses…including binding hands and feet. Seriously, you don’t have to watch too many crime shows or movies to see zip ties in action as make-shift handcuffs. If a character in your story finds himself zip tied, all is not lost. There are ways to escape. Breaking zip ties is possible. To understand how that is possible, we need to look at how zip ties work.
There are lots of types of zip ties, but this is the basic idea right here.
As tough as zip ties are, their strength all comes down to that little tooth. The key to breaking zip ties is to break that tooth. And that’s what we’re going to do. It just so happens I’m kind of an expert at breaking teeth. I don’t mean to brag, but, I broke my front tooth in half in an epic episode of idiocy.
In the video I demo three zip tie scenarios: a single zip tie that binds both hands, a zip tie around each wrist connected as chains and breaking a zip tie using shoe strings. I discuss the hands being bound behind the back as well.
What I didn’t go over nearly enough in the video is the damage those little plastic dearies can do to your wrists! Zip ties absolutely will draw blood and go through the meat on your wrists. I wouldn’t have thought it until I had them on and had them tight. Blood streaming down your bound character’s arms is absolutely plausible. They also cut off blood circulation and cause the hands to swell and tingle
The pain they inflict on the skin is sharp and, as you might imagine, cutting. The ties can bruise the wrists and create ligature marks even when there are sleeves between the tie and wrists. If your character can break the tie in one decisive action, there may still be marks and soreness. In all cases, it’s plausible that the character sprains their wrist/s.
In the moment, your character’s adrenaline will likely be flowing pretty hard. Because of that, the pain associated with breaking the ties will be lessened. But it could still hurt a bit.
Something else I didn’t mention in the video is that there are outtakes at the end. That’s a little bonus for you all that read this post. I put them in for two reasons. #1 They are funny. #2 In real life, things go wrong! In each case where I #FAIL it was because the zip ties were not tight enough. You have to put as much stress on that little tooth as possible. And, for the record, in the last outtake, I say “fudge!”
Yet, another thing I didn’t mention is what to do if the ankles are bound. If you have shoe strings, you can do the shoe string method. Or, tighten the tie as much
as possible and spread the knees apart as quickly as possible. Although I bet leg strength alone might do it. If you are hogtied, well, that’s just a “Jesus-take-the-wheel” moment.
Ok, heres the video…enjoy… And until the next round at FightWrite™.net, get blood on your pages!
