Stanley Alpert, the Kidnapping Victim Who Outsmarted his Captors

Birthdays are funny things. Some act like thresholds. One day you can't rent a car and the next day you magically can. Some arrive as catalyst. One birthday feels normal and the next you're suddenly thinking, wait, should I start a podcast? And then there are the birthdays that work more like parables. They hand you the experience first and the meany wanders in later. On his 38th birthday, Stan Alpert was not expecting a parable and yet here we are. His experience? Being yanked into a Lexus blindfolded, held at gunpoint and taken to a Brooklyn crash pad where his kidnappers, two sex workers and a rotating cast of terrible decisions kept him company through the longest birthday night imaginable. The meaning? Well, we'll get to that later. I'm Harvigianne and this is Killer Story. It's the night of January 22nd, 1998, New York City. It's cold, it's blistery and a group of friends gather outside a music venue. They're waiting on their friend Stan Alpert so they can enter a concert together. He's got all the tickets and he's late. Which wouldn't be such a big deal, I mean, if Stan's birthday, maybe he's caught up celebrating somewhere but Stan was really insistent that everybody had to be on time tonight. His friends start to worry. I mean, it's not like him to not show up or call, at least one of them has a cell phone Stan should be able to reach them, which could mean something is keeping him from calling. Out of concern, two friends head to Stan's apartment. He doesn't answer the buzzer. So, they track down the superintendent and he starts to get worried about Stan as well. The super leads him up the fire escape to Stan's kitchen window on the 5th floor. When they peer inside, they don't see anybody. It looks like nobody's home, but they want to be sure Stan's not in their dead or dying, so the super breaks the glass and lets them in. Still, no sign of him, only a blinking red light. It stands answer machine and he's got a lot of messages. So his friends hit play. There are family members wishing Stan a happy birthday, friends calling to check in on him. There's also one from a woman who found his wallet in a trash can. And another from his credit card company, because they've noticed some fishy charges. So clearly Stan hasn't gotten anybody's call all day, and his wallet was stolen hours ago. His friends call the police right away. Here's what happened to Stan Lee, but first, let's set the clock back about 24 hours to the previous night. Stan's on his way home after a blind date. And it didn't go as well as he'd hoped. She was nice, but they didn't have all that much in common. So they came to a mutual decision to cut the evening short. But Stan hasn't totally struck out. On the subway home, he randomly hits it off with the woman sitting next to him. He even talks her into going on a hunt for some cookies. Oh, well, he specifically wants those Edmund chocolate chip ones, but not the old ones. Not the old kind, though, new ones with the more generous chip size. Okay. Glad we cleared that up. Maybe Stan's being picky, or maybe he's buying a little time with this woman. Either way, if you remember the 90s, you know people took the entiments seriously. Anyway, they hit up a bunch of delis until they find exactly what they're looking for. So Stan asks if she wants to go out for tea. She turns him down. But only because it's late on a weeknight. Instead, she hands over her business card yet another reminder that we are in the 90s. After Stan drops her off, he's walking the last few blocks home, head held high, entiments in hand when somebody grabs his arm from behind. In a split second, two guys are dragging Stan into a brand new Lexus sedan. They tell him to be quiet and just go along with him. He doesn't have much of a choice. They're both holding extra scary looking guns on him. Once they push him inside, the Lexus kills down the street. And in the days before security cameras were big brother level everywhere, a box of cookies left on the sidewalk is the only sign that Stan was ever there. In the car, Stan tries to play it smart. He doesn't want to anger these guys, so he tries to keep his eyes averted, but he can still get this basic read on the situation. Two guys sit up front, lucky. The driver seems to be the brains behind whatever they have planned. To his right is a guy named Stan picks him as the meanest of the kidnappers. And to be fair, when Stan catches Stan looking at him, he says, "I should kill you for those big eyes." Then there's a third guy sitting in the backseat with Stan. His name is Ren, so we got Ren, Lucky, and Stan. That sounds like a cartoon I would watch on Saturday morning with a big bowl of cereal, so tune in. The trio of kidnappers make it pretty clear with repeated threats that Stan should do whatever they say, or risk being shot. So when they ask for Stan's wallet, his pen number, and his social security number, he hands in all over. And when Lucky asks how much he has in his savings account, Stan figures, "Well, he might as well tell the truth, they're going to know if he's lying," he says $110,000. Now a disclaimer, I'm not a financial advisor, and this is not financial advice. But that's kind of a lot of cash to have sitting around in a regular savings account, even the kidnappers are like, "Why?" I mean, this is the 90s in New York City, home of Wall Street, bro, what are you doing? Lucky makes a call. And using Stan's personal information, he transfers 50k into Stan's checking account. He says that tomorrow they're going to take Stan to the bank, and he's going to withdraw the cash and hand it over. Once that squared away, Lucky has another question for Stan. What do you do for a living? Again, Stan tells the truth, he's an assistant US attorney for the state of New York, as in a federal prosecutor. As in, when somebody like Stan goes missing, the police and the FBI are going to get involved, but that doesn't really dawn on the kidnappers yet. Ren uses Stan's own scarf to blindfold him, that way he can't see where they're going, but he knows they're headed for a crash pad. And right now Stan's main goal is to make it through this kidnapping alive. So he starts making himself likable, endearing, if it's quiet, he stays quiet. If they ask him something, he gives a polite answer. And if they make fun of him, he makes fun of himself right back. Like when the guys can't believe this successful attorney doesn't have a wife and kids, Stan's basically like, oh, I know, right? My parents would like a word about that too. He also makes mental notes of every clue he can gather. That way, if he does survive, he can help his fellow prosecutors take these guys down. Turns out being deprived of his sight actually heightens Stan's other senses. He can hear when they drive through a tunnel and over a bridge. When the Lexus parks, and he's marched up to an apartment, he counts the number of steps. He makes a mental note that the building smells like an old tenement, like where his grandma used to live. When Stan's kidnappers push him down onto a mattress on the floor, it's probably sometime around midnight. A start of Stan's 38th birthday. That's when Lucky tells him, if he doesn't cooperate tomorrow at the bank, the guys will kill Stan. And that's not all. They'll kill his father too, by breaking every bone in his body. Every morning, on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shooting caught on surveillance video. It was an assassination style killing, and everybody saw it. Now, as Luigi Mangioni prepares to stand trial for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which he denies, a new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside this captivating case. I'm ABC News Legal Analyst, Brian Buckmeyer. This into burden of proof, Luigi Mangioni, wherever you get your podcasts. behind send investigators on a years-long search. Is this a family on the run or is the truth far more sinister? From ABC Audio in 2020, this is what happens to the mixed days, coming in August 11. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts, listen early and add free. It's why they're so highly rated. Save time and meet great candidates sooner with Zip Recruiter. Four to five employers who post on Zip Recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try ever free at ziprecruiter.com/killers, that ziprecruiter.com/killers. Meet your match on Zip Recruiter. Now it's the early morning hours of January 22, 1998. Stan Albert's 38th birthday. He's sitting on a floor mattress in a crash pad. And he's in for what I assume is the weirdest day of his life. Stan hears the door open. They have visitors, two sex workers, they're young, just 16 and 18. But to protect their identity, I've given them some really cool names, Vivian and Kit. Yes, I named them after Julia Roberts and Laura San-Jankamo in Pretty Woman because it's a great film. So anyways, let's go with that. Lucky seems to be their pimp. He asks how their night went and the whole time Stan's gathering more clues, putting together a clear picture of where he might be. Vivian and Kit don't do anything to help Stan out of his predicament, but they do offer to get him a donals. Stan says no thanks. He doesn't want to give anybody a chance to drug his food. But when they offer him a sweet peach iced tea, Snapple, he can't resist because it's the 90s. I mean, who can blame him, right? It might as well be the drink of the year or the drink of the decade. And those cool things, you can just pop open and it has a little Stan and you're going to die. How do they know that? Snapple, how did you know that? They did not. But Snapples are delicious, I digress. As the night wears on, Stan wills himself to stay awake. He doesn't want to let his guard down. And eventually it kind of feels like his captors let their guard down. Why? Well, maybe it's because Lucky the boss leaves to visit his fiance. Maybe it's because Stan and Ren light a joint up and pass it around and Stan, of course, put lightly declines. Or maybe it's because V and Kit perform oral sex on Stan and Ren. On the same mattress where Stan is sitting, thanking God he's wearing a blindfold and probably wishing he had something like eyelids for his ears so he could close his ear canals at will. Whatever the reason, I don't know why, but Stan and Ren are relaxed now. And they start talking to Stan more, which leads Ren to ask what Stan would typically be doing today. You know, if he wasn't being held captive. Stan tells them it's his birthday. And well, first, everybody laughs and laughs, although Stan probably doesn't find it all that funny. He doesn't know if he's going to live or die today. Next, the guys decide Stan needs some kind of birthday present. So they offer a Vivian and Kit's services. You want some convict for them. They're really great from Stan and Ren's point of view. I guess it's a thoughtful gesture, but Stan is not interested in a blowjob from an underage sex worker on a bare mattress in front of everybody. Also, he's mid-Kidnapp, it's just say he's not in the mood, you know. So Lucky comes back around 4 a.m. with a new plan. He's figured out by now that because of Stan's job, the FBI is going to be looking for him. On top of that, Stan and Ren aren't so sure this $50,000 scheme is going to work. I mean, how are they going to make sure Stan doesn't try to pull anything at the bank without looking suspicious? So Lucky tells Stan he'll be back around 7 o'clock that morning. Then he'll let Stan go. Only the plan hits a snag right away. Unluckily for Lucky, somebody smashes in his passenger side window. While his Lexus is parked on the street, he wants to get his car to the shop. And until it's fixed, he has no way to drive Stan away from the crash pad to release him. Stan and Ren don't feel like sticking around, so they leave Lucky in the care of Viv and Kit, as well as the guy who owns the crash pad, and the day drags on. Nobody knows where Lucky is, or why he's taking such a long time. From behind his blindfold, Stan starts to hear buses out on the street, and realizes it's daytime. Any minute now, his colleagues will be waiting for him to start a big meeting at work. It's the one that Stan actually put together, so hopefully, when he's a no-show, people will realize something's wrong. Over at Stan's office, that's more or less what happens. But the show, or the meeting, has to go on with or without Stan. His coworker probably would be more worried about his absence if it wasn't his birthday. They think maybe he took the day off. Finally, after a long and excruciating day, Stan hears the door open again. Stan and Ren are back with a new, new plan. So far, they've maxed out his daily limit at the ATM twice, once last night and again today. Now they're going to hold him for a few more hours until after midnight. That way they can hit up the ATM one last time. By now, Stan spent nearly 24 hours with his kidnappers, and he's gathered a lot of information on them. He knows everybody's names. He knows Viv had to appear in court that day, and figures he can probably find her in the system. He overheard the name of the Delhi word they bought him a sandwich, and Stan's pretty sure he knows that place. It's in Brooklyn, where he actually grew up. Sharing all this information in front of him has him nervous. It makes him question whether they're actually going to let him walk away from this. I mean, they wouldn't be the smart thing to do. On the other hand, there are some signs that they've taken a liking to him, like the fact that Ren goes around singing his name and calling him Stan the man. Or when one of them confides in Stan, that his back has been messed up ever since he was hit by a taxi and Stan for legal advice. At one point, the group even goes around in a circle telling jokes. And when Ren, who is black, starts doing a Jamaican patois, it kills. He's dying laughing, so Stan, who is white, thinks to himself maybe he should do what you make an accent to. And then he has second thoughts. He worries maybe the rest of the group might think he's being racist. But then he figures, what the heck, he jumps in with a thick Jamaican accent anyway. And hey, according to Stan, Ren and Stan think it's funny. Then even till Stan, they'd probably be friends if they had met under totally different circumstances. And this is the guy Stan had pegged as being the meanest. So the strategy seems to be working. They like Stan. Lucky comes back that night. The guys pull Stan to his feet. But before they go, Lucky asks him one last question. He wants to know if Stan would put him in jail, you know, if he had the chance. And I can't really think of a better time to tell a bald-faced lie, but Stan tells Lucky, nope. They can all ride off into the sunset and live their lives. Those are the magic words. Stan's guided out of the building and back into the Lexus, which takes off. This is it. His birthday nightmare may finally be over. Escape from his captors is just a few miles away now. But then Lucky pulls the car over and Stan hears a sickening sound. One you definitely do not want to hear if you're blindfolded in the back of a kidnapper's car. Someone opens a trunk and starts pulling duct tape off a roll. Someone has succeeded in making his captors like him, but there was always another part of the plan he had absolutely no control over. And that's where they're being likable would actually keep him alive. When Stan hears Lucky getting the duct tape, it seems like the logical conclusion is, this is very bad news for Stan. To be that while he was trying to play them by being likable and gain their trust, they were actually playing him, letting him think they liked him to bring his guard down so that killing him would be easier. But then, nope, Lucky starts taping up his passenger window. Yeah, it turns out the new window he bought had to be special ordered. It hasn't come in yet and the plastic he used to cover his window has been blowing around and annoying him. Window fixed, Lucky hops back in the car and drives a little farther. One of the kidnappers gives Stan a $20 bill. It's his own money, but still, his captors want to make sure he can get a cab right home after they drop him off. The next time Lucky stops the car, he tells Stan to get out of the car and start walking. Still blindfolded, he takes a few hesitant steps. He thinks he hears the car drive off, but he's not sure. He calls out to them, but nobody answers. So, he rips off the blindfold, and he instantly knows exactly where he is. It's dark outside, but Stan recognizes Prospect Park. He grew up so close to this exact spot that he'd taken his family dog for walks here. Then, Stan starts running. Over at Stan's apartment in Manhattan, a bunch of people huddle around the answer machine. The police and FBI responded to his friend's report that Stan was missing, and now they've listened to the troubling messages too. They're still standing there right by the phone when it starts ringing. One agent cautiously answers, and he hears Stan on the other end of the line. After calling his dad to tell him he was okay, Stan was told to call his own apartment, so he did. Over the phone, Stan gives the bullet points of his whole wild night. He was kidnapped. They let him go. He's alright, and he found a pizza place that was still open, but now he's in Brooklyn with no way to get back home. I mean, he does have that $20 bill, but he knows it's going to have useful fingerprints on it, so he doesn't want to spend it. While the agent's talking to him, everybody else in Stan's apartment realize who's on the phone, and they can't believe it. People start cheering. Stan's friends are shouting that they love him. It's adorable pandemonium. Stan has lived to see his great big happy ending. Well, almost. Stan's background as a federal prosecutor had helped him get through the ordeal. He'd stayed calm under pressure. He'd memorize his many names, places, and clues as possible. He even brought back potential evidence. The $20 bill handled by the kidnappers. He'd mentally logged all of this information so that he could recite everything back to the investigators, but once the FBI agents sit down with Stan and get the full story, here's what they see. A guy disappeared on his birthday, missed a big meeting network, and now he's telling this ridiculous story about bumbling kidnappers who didn't steal all the cash they said they were going to steal, who laughed and choked with him, talked to legal advice, even offered birthday sex, and then they just let Stan go. Some of the agents think the story is too weird to be true, like they don't fully believe everything he's telling them. But there is one part of Stan's story that feels disturbingly real. That's when he talks about the kidnappers threatening the life of his father, a 77-year-old battling Parkinson's disease. They'd even had a colleague drive over to his dad's address to confirm that he lived there. Stan is clearly still worried about his safety, and nobody can think of a good reason why a US attorney would lie about something like that, which means they've got some kidnappers to track down. Once investigators find Vivian, the case starts coming together. She had a few minor arrests, and she's pretty easy to find in the database. Agents get her in her room, and she confirms as much of Stan's story as she knows. She also gives them Lucky's cell phone number, which allows investigators to track him down. He and his Lexus get pulled over soon after, with Sen in the passenger seat. At the precinct, Lucky says he wasn't a mastermind behind the kidnapping at all. He makes up this story about how it was actually Sen and Ren's idea, and that they're friends of his, so he agreed to drive. And he claims he didn't like the plan at all. But once they've grabbed Stan, Lucky felt like he had to stay and protect him. He adds, if it weren't for him, Stan might be dead. He had to talk Sen and Ren out of killing him. So, he's actually a hero. Wow, I'm sorry. Does anyone see a bus around here because Lucky's trying to throw his friends under one? Well, it doesn't really matter, though. Investigators know he's lying. By the end of the weekend, everybody involved in the kidnapping is rounded up. Six out of seven of them confess on camera. And even if they didn't, they target at somebody who turned out to be a perfect witness, birthday boy Stan Albert. Once the suspects are in custody, Stan gets a much needed nap. He even attends part of a super bowl party. Stan moves on with his life, but it's not always easy. He's endured psychological torture. Now and then, he's jolted awake at night by his nightmares. And remember how Stan gave Lucky his social security number? Well, now somebody keeps opening credit cards in his name and charging them. Can you just even imagine going through this terrible ordeal and then you still have to face identity theft? Hours on hold with store billing departments and I'm not even joking. That's actually a waking nightmare. It's like the torment will not end. A few months later, the trio of kidnappers each get their days in court. And it turns out they're all young. Lucky is 18. Stan is 19 and Ren is only 16 years old. He's still in high school. All three of them receive sentences ranging from 15 years to life. Viv gets a 6-1 sentence and kid is in prosecuted. Stan Albert lives to tell his story, which he turns into a book titled The Birthday Party. At the beginning of this episode, I said some birthdays act like parables. They hand you the experience first and let the meaning wander in later. Stan Albert survived a kidnapping on his 38th birthday. A night so bizarre, so dangerous, so darkly absurd that even the FBI didn't believe it at first. But the meaning? Well, that took a while. It didn't arrive in a crash pad or Alexis or an FBI office. It showed up later. In the unexpected places, survival leads you. In the people who cross your path because of the story you live to tell. Because one day, this random guy picks up a copy of The Birthday Party, Stan's book. He reads it. He can't believe it. And he goes to meet Stan, the author. Behind this wild, impossible story, the two become friends. And then that friend introduces Stan to a woman. After years of blind dates and misconnections on the subway, Stan finds love. A marriage made possible because he survived and then wrote it all down. Some birthdays give you everything at once. This one gave Stan the experience now and the meaning later. Things for tuning in to Killer Stories, a Spotify podcast. New episodes release on Mondays. If you like today's story and want to learn more, we drop some of our favorite sources in the episode description. Until next time, I'm Harvey Vienn. Stay safe out there.