By Max Slowik » Sat, October 29 2011

I actually just tried this. It works. I didn’t get it on the first beer attempt, and by re-watching the video, I saw what I’d been doing wrong.

On my first try the cuffs were just way too loose. Your cuffer needs to cinch down on them like he or she is a cop who fucking despises you. It hurts, but only ’til your fingers go numb. Kidding. It actually hurts way worse to have them too loose and then run your wrists across the plastic. Really get ‘em on there.

Get your wrists as close together as the zip-tie is getting put on, because you want them zipped together tightly. Cupping one hand over your other fist helps.

When you get around to breaking them off, you really gotta bend your knees and stick out your ass. You’re not going to get a lot of leverage from your arms behind you, so you need to distance your ass as far away as possible. Bring it down hard on your sacrum. Your arms will naturally pull outwards in the right direction.

I thought it was easier than breaking free from zip tie cuffs with my hands in front of me.

These guys have a guide for that, too. Check it out.



In our How To Escape and Evade in an Urban Environment article, we briefly discussed escaping from zip ties. There are quite a few hasty methods of illegal restraint, and zip ties are a method that’s available to any would-be kidnapper. A few of the other methods seen are duct tape, rope and phone cord, but with a little education you’ll see that all of these methods can easily be defeated.

Eventually they come across some zip-ties they have some problems with. But you never know when this sort of shit will come in handy.