Hunted on CBS: Flight Risk

If I haven’t already told you, I am a huge fan of the new show, Hunted, which airs on Wednesday on CBS. I was randomly introduced to the show and have been hooked ever since.

If you’ve never seen it, the premise of the show is that multiple pairs of people are randomly considered fugitives. If they can remain uncaptured from ex-intelligence agents (hunters) for 28 days, they win $250,000. Sounds easy enough right?

You’d think if you just didn’t use your cell phone, an ATM, your own car, stayed away from the internet, and just hid in the woods for 28 days, then you’d be safe right? You most certainly would be wrong!

If they can remain uncaptured from ex-intelligence agents (hunters) for 28 days, they win $250,000. Sounds easy enough right?

Considering the ways the intelligence folks found people were as follows:

• Tapping phones– ok, this is a given
• Intercepting photocopies of envelopes from the post office– What?! Ok, this makes sense, though…
• Posting ads on Tinder– Nothing is sacred…
• Reading license plates via highway cameras– That’s what those are for? I thought those were for monitoring traffic patterns.
• Using drones– duh
• Tapping into cameras around town– duh
• By scratching a pencil over a calendar that was written on previously to reveal the old text– why did that idiot write her entire plan down at all? And who the hell is smart enough to find that?
• By getting copies of receipts from stores to find burner phone numbers– What? So you think you bought a burner phone and nobody can track it? Guess again, those phones actually have phone numbers that are apparently printed on the receipt at the store where you got it from. Boom, you’ve been caught!
• By going through Facebook and finding all connections– duh, and this is why I would get caught! I take a picture in every new outfit, I check in at all the cool places I visit, and I tag my friends. Super caught.
• By putting up wanted posters on the fugitive’s Facebook accounts– What? I forget that you lose all rights to privacy when you’re a fugitive so they will just contact all your friends directly through your social channels. Again, nothing is sacred. And how embarrassing!! By the way, this is where you find out who your true friends are. If they are trying to turn you in for a reward, they are not your ride or die…
• By finding deleted data from laptops– So even if I clear my browsing history, delete all my files and empty my trash, that stuff just lives on somewhere in the atmosphere? Now I know I can find out what my fiancé does on his laptop at night ::insert evil laugh::
• Interrogating family members– Just as you suspected, your sweet Mom is a saint and will surely tip off any interrogator that she is lying to help her baby. Your kids are bad liars and so is your Grandma.

Nothing is safe. Trust nobody. I have to admit that the hunters are like my nerdy super heroes. These folks are smart and think well on their feet. Clearly they were good at their jobs.

I have to admit that the hunters are like my nerdy super heros.

The folks who tried to just get around by connecting with random people seemed to be caught the fastest, which is the exact opposite of what I thought would happen. Who the hell knew that the USPS scanned the front of every envelope that came through the post office? I know it makes sense to have a paper trail, but how can ex-intelligence folks still get a hold of it? And so quickly? How can they hack Tinder? And who the hell is on Tinder looking at ads and swiping on them. I ignored those back in my Tinder days.

The folks who tried to just get around by connecting with random people seemed to be caught the fastest, which is the exact opposite of what I thought would happen.

And I didn’t realize that those cameras I always assumed were to catch people who ran through red lights (that’s what we were told was the original intent in my area; to give tickets to people who run through lights…I’ve seen the tickets come through the mail!!), but now I see they are everywhere, tracking license plates at a very accurate rate on highways. Now I see that you can be found anywhere and everywhere. Oh and if staying off the grid was your big plan, keep in mind that these folks have drones and will find you on a random boat; while you’re kayaking in a lake, yep, you will be caught.

So you see all these crazy ways people have gotten caught, right? Well the guys I’m rooting for are Lee Wilson and Hilmar Skagfield. Lee is behind the Escape Room. Have you ever done one of those? You have like 60 minutes to figure out how all these clues can help you escape a room with your friends. It’s hard, I did this with friends while pregnant, and our poor hostages died because we sucked, lol.

Anyway, these two guys are taunting the hunters. When they first started they lead the hunters to this remote cabin where they had a message, some booze and all of their electronics laid out to tease them. They came up with this elaborate plan with codes, secret email accounts and sent directions via snail mail to all their family members. What they weren’t counting on was that the hunters, as I said above, can get access to the front of the envelopes, which essentially gave the hunters a list of all of their contacts.

They came up with this elaborate plan to with codes, secret email accounts and sent directions via snail mail to all their family members.

You’d think they were going to get caught now that their original plan blew up, but these dudes are so crafty that they flew Lee’s wife out to a remote airport for his birthday, hung out with her, found out he was having a boy, took a picture and had his wife post it to Facebook!!!! What!!!???? The hunters were pissed, and now it’s their sole goal in life to capture these dudes. Honestly, they are my heroes and I hope they win. Who better to escape the feds than a guy who plans escapes and creates riddles as a hobby?

Check out the clip below of my favorites (#LostWolves) and catch up on all the episodes on CBS.