The Birthday Party | Full Episode | Forensic Files

h hi it's Stan please leave a message it was January 22nd 1998 it was Stan's 38th
birthday he didn't come to work and that's not like Stanley there's a very diligent person with a very high-profile
job and he had an appointment that he didn't show up for and didn't call anybody about
[Music] a federal prosecutor was missing and nobody knew where he [Music] was a group of his friends were throwing
him a party at a club in downtown Manhattan it was his birthday and he didn't come to his own birthday
party did he go out did he go partying did he drink was he using drugs was he involved in some sex
capades you know there was saying no you know he's kind of a quiet mild maned guy
like he wouldn't just disappear he wouldn't just not come to [Music] work one possibility was that he was at
home either ill or or sleeping or passed out when we arrived at Stanley's apartment the superintendent didn't have
the key so one of the guys followed the building superintendent up the fire escape and the superintendent used his
elbow to smash in Stanley's Kitchen windows there was nothing that indicated that
Stanley had been there recently then somebody pressed the answering machine on his
telephone hi it's Stan please leave a message you know beep happy birthday from some friend or
relative and then the third message was this is your credit card company calling
to say there's unusual activity on your card a couple of beeps after that was even
[Music] worse a person called and she said I found your wallet in Bedford stent in
the garbage and that was really scary bford serson is a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn what would his wallet be doing
BF [Applause] serson somebody said maybe he's lying in an Alleyway somewhere bleeding
and somebody else said or maybe or he was [Music] dead this is unbelievable this got to be
something more to the story as we started to look into it people were thinking this is just really
way too crazy to be true [Music] [Music] [Music] this was clearly a serious item in New
York City a federal prosecutor is missing he hasn't been heard from for 24 hours
people are scared there was sort of this hysteria in the apartment with his friends there
you know everybody had their Theory you know where Stan was and what happened to
Stan certainly was possible to me that he'd been murdered you know we're sort of trying
to come up with a plan of action when the phone rings we sort of looked at each other
and we're like well somebody get it so I I answer the phone and uh and the voice
on the other end of the phone says this is Stan who is this and so I tell him who I
am I say are you all right and he says yes I'm all right but I was kidnapped and we were sort of kind of
stunned by that you know he was kidnapped I mean who would kidnap a United States Attorney
I just ran for it I ran across Prospect Park West and went down one of the side streets on my
way to 7th Avenue there was a pizza place that was open and I and I start saying to the guy
behind on the camera can I use your phone can I use your phone I was just kidnapped can I use your
phone I'm a I'm I'm a federal prosecutor but but but I made it out you know can I please use your phone I
got to call people he looked at me like uh I had three heads and I said Stan where are you all
we got on the phone was I'm at a pizzeria in Brooklyn stay where you are we're coming to get you stay where you
[Music] are we piled in cars I went with one agent [Music] remember feeling incredibly frustrated
because he wasn't zooming through the red lights when the agents and detectives picked up Stan in Brooklyn he was in
front of a pizzeria right where he said he would be when we drove up and I saw him he
looked almost like a skeleton he looked exhausted he was really really nervous um you know looked like um he'd been up
all night so they drove me from Brooklyn to the 9th precinct in the East Village and
they brought me inside and they put me in a room and uh they started questioning him
and he started going through his story and it wasn't until you know hours later that we would start hearing you know the
details of that evening you know between the drugs and the sex people were like you know this
doesn't make sense at all it was a pretty bizarre story um that most people were having trouble
embracing you're kind of rolling your eyes thinking oh my gosh this is crazy this is
[Music] crazy the night of January 21st 1998 I went on a blind date didn't work out an hour later I got
on the train to come [Music] home it was a freezing cold night one of those bitterly cold uh winter New York
nights there was nobody around it was roughly 11:00 I was walking down 10th Street toward Fifth
Avenue in the village and as I get toward the corner of 10th Street and Fifth Avenue from out
of nowhere I didn't see it I didn't hear it before I feel a tug on my elbow I spin around there's a big fat black
barreled automatic machine gun sticking in my gut there were two guys behind me shoved me from behind they pushed me out
into the street move move don't say a word just get in the car [Music] they put me in the back seat of the
car I could see the outline of the word Lexus on the dash so I knew we were in Lexus the guy in front of me starts
talking what's your name Stanley Stanley let me tell you what we're going to do we're going to take you to the cash
machine and we're going to get your money and if you with us we will kill you that guy was named
Lucky the toughest Thug was called s he was across from me to the right and almost by accident I didn't
want to I looked at him our eyes met and Sen stuck his pistol in my face and he screamed at me like got big eyes I
should kill you for those big [Music] eyes the guy on I right his name was Ren Ren seemed to be more of a henchman
he seemed to be the one who would just do what they told him they took me to the cash machine at 23rd
Street and 6th Avenue lucky goes in to get money so they asked me how much I had in
my savings account and I knew I had to tell the truth because all I have to do is go put in my PIN number and they can
know everything so I said somewhere around $110,000 they heard that number and they
were amazed well that's the point where the plan shifted they drove towards the Westside
Highway way and lucky started explain to me what their plan was he said we're going to hold you overnight and tomorrow
morning we're going to take you to a bank and you're going to withdraw $50,000 and if you don't cooperate we'll
kill you and then he ordered Ren to blindfold me so Ren pulls my scarf off and wraps
it wraps it around my eyes you know my own scarf ties it tight then he shoved me down on the seat next to him in a
fetal position and they drove I didn't know where we were going was too early to think at that
point I was just petrified it was it was the most horrifying moment you can imagine
they decided that they had caught something that they wanted to keep for a while that was
[Music] me the agents interviewed me with all deliberate seriousness and they kept me
there for hours Stan told a story you know he's kidnapped off the streets at gunpoint
but uh I had absolutely no clue that they didn't find my story credible not a [Music]
clue you got to keep in mind I'm blindfolded what you learn if you're blindfolded is
you can pick up a lot with through your sense of hearing when we go through the tunnel
that's at the bottom of Manhattan I know we're through that tunnel cuz it sounds
different and few minutes later I could hear us going over a bridge so I knew We're Going Somewhere
in Brooklyn or Queens [Music] they pushed me out of the car I went up couple of steps through a doorway couple
steps more through another doorway down a long thin hallway and then they shoved me up the
stairs and now I'm trapped in somebody's [Music] apartment and I can still see a little
bit out the bottom of my blindfold I can see two mattresses on the floor it looks
like a place where people just crash the most obviously terrifying violent member of the gang was sent
actually I could practically feel him close to me at one point you know pointing the gun at me and saying
Stanley you ever see one of these guns all I got to do is pull a trigger and Bam Bam Bam your brains will be all over
that wall repeatedly they kept cocking and uncocking the guns so that I could hear
it they demanded my father's address it was in my wallet lucky told me that if I
didn't cooperate with them at the bank in the morning he would kill my father that they would break every bone in my
father's body [Music] it always drove me crazy that they picked him of all people because
apparently they thought he was some rich Wall Street lawyer type Stan was a federal prosecutor that
was a very important job he a person who wants to make an impact on the world and in many ways
wants to make the world a better [Music] place Stanley certainly not born with a
silver spoon he was the kind of guy who had to work for everything he had I grew up lower middle class in
Brooklyn we didn't have a lot of money I spent all my time out on the streets I was a little guy a little
skinny guy so talking your way out of things was one good skill that you that you needed to learn
[Music] a few minutes later I could hear the front door of the apartment open and I
could hear a bunch of footsteps I could hear them talking hey D hey Mystic what's up how you doing
how'd you do out on the street Mercedes and Mystic come into the apartment these two teenage girls who
are prostitutes and they're friends of Ren and Sen so a few minutes after that lucky left
the apartment and you know you got the feeling that people were kind of settling
in somebody struck a match and you could smell the marijuana [Music] so then there're smoking pot and you can
hear that there are sexual acts going on and you know this was awful good thing that I was blindfolded cuz I
couldn't see what was happening around me so here is Stan this sort of reserved us attorney is sitting on a mattress
while two people are having sex next to him um and then another couple is having
sex across the room my gosh this didn't happen this guy got lost for 24 hours and he needs a good
story and then you know when it was over there was a calm in the room so s asked
me Stanley what you know what would you be doing if um if we hadn't grabbed you on the street I'd be meeting my friends
for a concert because that day was my birthday and they heard that and they just burst out laughing oh my God we
kidnapped the on his birthday then s says you know it's your birthday you deserve something nice for
your birthday how about a from one of these girls These are nice girls and I said No
thanks and then they kept pushing it Stanley you should take it cuz you know what I think the girls like you so I
said you know what the only reason they like me is cuz most of my face is covered
here's a guy who's been kidnapped you know he's sitting there and they're offering him oral sex a lot I think the
more uh seasoned individuals didn't believe it at all I can't explain it I just tried to make them not dislike me
so that they wouldn't want to kill [Music] me in the middle of the night s and ren
were openly discussing what their plans were with me and S wasn't happy with the
plan and he didn't think it was going to work it's not going to look right it's going to look odd for two
black men to be taking this sort of nerdy white man into the bank and he's you know withdrawing all this
money so luy comes back at 4 in the morning and Ren and S say look we got to talk to you and they go outside the room
they talked for a couple of minutes and then lucky pops his head back in the room and he says Stanley tell me again
what you do for a living and I say I'm an assistant us attorney and he says us oh no the FBI is going to be after
[Music] us and that's when lucky told me that they changed the plan and he says Stanley look I got good news for you
we're going to be taking you back I'm going to come back here at 7:00 in the morning we're going to take you back and
let you [Music] go they stayed outside the room at that point talking so did I think they might
be planning to kill me sure until this thing was over I knew that my life was hanging by a thread the
whole time [Music] w [Music] in the early morning hours things got very quiet there wasn't much
activity and you know I could feel that Dawn had come I could hear buses going by and I also could hear seagulls
[Music] and then this guy Lewis shows up and he's renting the space to them sen and ren have decided that they
want to get out of there they've got things to attend to so they tell Lewis here's our guns you stay here you hold
these guns you watch this guy until we get back Louis so offered me food actually all of them offered off me
food at one point or another I thought about trying to convince Lewis to let me go cuz there
were hours where the other guys went out he's there holding the guns he's with the
girls but he was a volatile paranoid scared kind of guy and what I was really afraid of is that if I tried
to go down that path if I tried to convince him to let me go he'd freak [Music] out I mean just pull the trigger on that
Tech 9 multiple bullets are going to come out per second I'm done you know in 25 hours of being
blindfolded and sitting on a mattress you have a lot of time to think and what I was thinking was if I don't get killed
I'm going to gather enough evidence so that these guys get put away and they don't do it to anybody else
[Music] again I had a lot of clues that could help them find these guys I could actually see the pattern on the tiles as
we went into the building and I tried to memorize the pattern I could tell it was a Railroad
Flat in an old tenement building so I counted the steps of the first landing and I counted it to the second
Landing they tortured me they threatened to murder me they threatened to kill my
father I couldn't possibly allow them to do that to another person ever I was absolutely devastated by the
thought that anybody would hurt my father during the interview when Stan was sharing about his dad and his
concerns about his father you could see a physical change now it was becoming [Music]
emotional this is something he was feeling and for me as an investigator it's telling me that he's
telling me the truth you know we ended up after several hours of talking to him you know believing what he
[Music] said hour after hour goes by and nobody knows where's lucky nobody is telling me
why he didn't come back nobody is telling me why they haven't set me [Music] [Music]
free about six or 7:00 Ren and S came back so there was a period of a few hours when things got light lighter and
you know they started getting friendly they wanted legal advice I think one of them had gotten into some sort of a car
accident and uh he had some injuries from it he wanted to know Stan's opinion that would he be able to have a lawsuit
and he wanted to know how much his case was worth he had a lumbar problem he had
to go to a chiropractor once a week he wanted to know how much he could get for his case he had a lawyer but he had look
he had me there he had a chance for a second [Music] opinion and then there was this whole
period where everybody sat around like we were at a dinner party and starts telling jokes and they kept calling me
Stephen and I kept correcting them and said my name's not Stephen it's it's Stanley and at one point Ren says oh
sorry Stanley our mistake Steven's the guy we did this to the other night and then somewhere around 10:00 at
night lucky comes back comes bursting through the door right away the mood changed lucky was the boss he's back
they're not going to be joking around anymore everybody is dead serious everybody is quiet and he says come on
let's go and boom like with military Precision they marched me out the [Music] door I started to get very nervous I
started to feel palpitations in my heart I got a sweat on the back of my neck and
my forehead I felt a little sick lucky stopped at the doorway turned back to me and said Stanley let me ask you
something if you had the chance to put me away for life would you do it look you already told me you know
where I live you know where my father lives I don't know who you are I don't know where we are
and you say you're going to release me unharmed I don't think this has to go any
further so nobody says a word lucky gets out of the car it's until a minute later I hear the
trunk opening and then I heard the sound of duct tape being pulled off of a roll and it's that point that I was
positive that my life was over I was sure they were going to kill me right then and there
is [Music] suddenly your whole life flashes in front of you you'll never call somebody you'll
never watch a movie you'll never sit down to a meal you'll never meet somebody with the hope of getting
married all those things that make up life for me in that moment when I heard the
duct tape pulling off the roll that was over and I and and that was really the most terrific feeling anybody can
[Music] imagine so second later I heard lucky applying the tape to the plastic that
was covering the broken window on his car and then it slowly dawned on me that I had just made a big mistake overnight
somebody had broken into his car smashed the passenger side window so uh he was just fixing the
[Music] plastic they kept driving and drove for I don't know maybe another 10 or 15
minutes and then they stopped the car [Music] again and the guy to my right says should we
give him $20 for a c of course it was $20 of my own money but that sounded courteous but
they might have been tricking me I really didn't know that same guy opened the door and
and they and and he took me outside and I'm still blindfolded and he said put your hands
up and he says you just [Music] walk so I took a step and then another step and eventually I think I can very gently
hear the Lexus pulling away so I said are you there and nobody answered and I ripped the blindfold off
and I spun around and they were gone and that was the happiest moment of my life it
was it was it was like it was ecstasy it was pure ecstasy I just ran for it yeah I recognized that it was
Prospect Park I grew up there I I was there all the time so I was rushing to find a business
a restaurant something like that where I could go in and make a call and then when the phone call came in that's when
the energy in the room sort of went from 0 to 60 just stay where you are stay where you
are the the precinct was crazy it was a buzz with energy you know they debriefed him and
they started typing up the report and it was as she was typing it we were pulling
it off she would get a half a page typed and we would yell print it she'd print it and then we would run with
it we had one group of people you know running down you know Ren and Sen we had another group that was looking for luck
looking for that Lexus we had people looking for the prostitutes we ran Mercedes that
nickname through the NYPD database found a young female who'd been arrested a number of times for
prostitution our job was to try to see if we could locate Mercedes and interviewer I'd seen a number of
pictures of her from you know her wrap sheets there's these two girls standing in front of this building as soon as we
walk up I recognize uh Mercedes right from the pictures so I actually say to her hey
Mercedes how you doing you know I said Hey listen we got to talk to you for a minute when you do an interview with
somebody what you want to do is you want to basically Elevate the level of threat
towards them which make them feel like they're in a world of trouble you have no idea I said you and your friends have
basically done one of the worst things you could could possibly ever do you kidnapped a US attorney and I said I'm
an FBI agent and I said and if you ever been in trouble before you have no idea what kind of trouble you're going to be
in now so she gave up everything that she knew you know she started rambling off
lucky and Ren and S and all of a sudden it was like oh my gosh you know everything that Stan had told us she she
confirmed for us she said she had felt sorry for Stan and had offered him oral sex because it was his birthday and she
felt bad for him based on the information that she provided um we had lucky cell phone
number every time he he turned his phone on we were able to see what cell tower it was pinging off of so we were able to
sort of narrow down where he was so um we had agents and detectives out in brookin a lot of police work is boring
but when you get to the Hunts there's nothing like it nothing like it I always love the hunt
the Lexus had a broken window we were told but we also had a plate number and it was about 9:00 at night when the when
Alexus drove by us so that's when uh our heart started beating and we uh gave Pursuit you know or you believe that
they're all armed and and you know you have to really be careful at this point because we just don't know what's going
to be the next move on their part well we pull them over we're on both sides of the car right uh we all
have our guns drawn and we're telling them we want to see their hands we want to see all their hands the Pips we
pulled out of the car were lucky and sent we cuffed each one of them and we got into our cars and we all drove back
them in had Ren was picked up by uh a couple of other Det Ives uh probably not much
later criminals have the idea when they come into an interrogation room they're going to outsmart me my feeling is if
they had brains right we would be in trouble [Music] [Music] my end goal is to solicit the
truth I want to know the truth if I have to cry or laugh in an interrogation room to get the truth I'll
do that if I have to be their friend I'll do [Music] that the first interview I conduct is
with the defendant lucky he kept saying I didn't doing anything wrong I know my rights and he says I'm having a lot of
trouble remembering even what's going on the last few days he said I had a very very
bad time it really screwed up my mind I said well why don't you tell me about your bad
[Music] time so he went on to tell me how two male blacks came over to him approached
them pulled out guns and fored them into his car and uh while they were driving him
around they uh brought him to different banks and gave him an ATM card and they made him withdraw money I said you got
to be kidding me I said that's horrible Ren or told him to go back to Brooklyn uh to an apartment they had over in
Brooklyn and he went back to the apartment and he said my sole objective here was to calm Stanley down he said I
could see he looked a little bit nervous he said I really liked Stanley I I thought he was a nice fell and I felt
really bad about him he said that Ren and S would B bad guys and that uh they were more than
willing to kill this guy and he insisted that they had to let him go I thought he
brought tears to my eyes that he was such a concerning human being he was so concerned about
Stanley once I had that I I had really more than I needed leis walked into the precinct and
surrendered said to the S I understand you're looking for me and told him who he was right away Lewis didn't strike me
as being very intelligent and I said to him Lewis I got lucky I got Bren I got sin I got
Mercedes I says and they were all saying you're the ring leader you're the guy that set this up for Stanley I said
don't say a word I said before anything I want to know where you going to be on my team or their team and he looked at
me and said I want to be on your team I said you got [Music] it and he said I didn't do anything he
said it was my apartment he said all I did was sit with Stanley he said I had nothing to do with
the kidnapping right and I really shouldn't even be here and if criminals had brains we'd be out of business
it's 12 or 15 hours later now we've got everybody wrapped up now we have everybody in a big holding
cell I'm on the other side of the squad room and I got my foot up on the desk and I'm smoking a cigarette and I
hear I'm looking around I I look across the room and it's Louis and he's got his face in Between the
Bars so I go walking across the room I said what's the matter says I want to know am I still on your team I said yes
you are and with that I fell right to the floor when they picked him on the street
they had no idea that this mild-mannered man was going to turn out to be an amazing amazing witness he truly had to
have a survival Instinct in order to get through an ordeal like that oh he was great he was the best he was able to
joke with them he was respectful he was polite the things that Stan remembered the evidence that he gave us was
critical in solving this case absolutely [Music] critical they eventually all decided to
plead [Music] guilty the girls got shorter sentences and the men got substantial
[Music] time I personally believe they got what they deserved there was no doubt about
it we have the right to be able to go for point A to point B without being accosted by people with guns and dragged
off and held somewhere against your [Music] will looking back the post kidnapping
part of my life is really better than the pre kidnapping part of my life I think I learned some
important lessons these days I live life more fully a year after it happened I very good got myself
a dog which I'd wanted for a long time it's a little silly but I went out and bought myself a little Cabrio
convertible just recently uh God finally blessed me and had me meet somebody who
I fell in love with and I managed to get married which was you know one of the happiest moments of my
life and so in many ways this kidnapping was a wakeup call to me it made me realize how precious life
is [Music] f [Music] [Music] he [Music]

A federal prosecutor kidnapped at gunpoint on his birthday recounts his bizarre hostage ordeal. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

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Brief Summary

Federal prosecutor Stan was kidnapped on his birthday, leading to a dramatic investigation and eventual capture of his abductors.

Key points

Stan's Mysterious Disappearance. On his 38th birthday, federal prosecutor Stan goes missing, leaving friends worried and confused.
The Shocking Kidnapping. Stan reveals he was kidnapped at gunpoint, leaving everyone stunned.
A Narrow Escape. After hours of captivity, Stan manages to escape and runs to safety.
The Hunt Begins. The team rushes to locate the kidnapped victim, feeling the urgency of the situation.
A Critical Interview. The interview with Mercedes reveals crucial information about the kidnapping.
Turning Point. The suspect, Lewis, chooses to cooperate with the authorities, revealing his role.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is unbelievable, this has got to be something more to the story.

Friends reacting to Stan's disappearance.

3:11WatchJan 21, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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