Mmmph! My saving means of communication lying bound, gagged, hogtied

This has been a harrowing few weeks. I'm 31,female, an elementary school principal married with two children. Went with two young female staff members to a 3 day workshop. We stayed at a hotel. On night one we went to the hotel bar for a drink but guys kept coming over to ask me to dance despite the ring. Next night I put on jeans, long sleeve tee and planned to read in my room. My girls said they'd stop when they returned. I called home, then went into hallway for a soda and pretzels from machines. As I re-entered my room a hand clasped my mouth, pushed me in and a woman took my purse from my hand. The hand, still on my mouth was a man's judging by his voice. The woman said they wanted money and then reached into her coat. Frightening! I thought she had a gun. She pulled out what seemed like a ton of cords, dropped them on the floor and shoved a large cloth in my mouth and tied it tightly behind my head. Both then began binding me very, very tightly with strips of cord. My hands behind my back, my ankles, legs, chest, shoulders, all tightly. They hop-walked me to the bathroom, eased me face down on the floor and used another strip of cord to hogtie me. Then they left. I had no hope to untie myself and being hogtied I could not stand and hop to the door. Crawling inch by inch I tried successfully to reach the door so I could alert my staff members whenever they came by. (I had no idea if the door was locked). I obviously could not shout but I tried to mmph loudly. It would have to do. Two hours passed as I yanked, twisted, rocked and struggled without any success. Never felt so alone and helpless. If not for the jeans and long sleeves the skin on my arms and legs would be cut up. I finally heard footsteps and my girls voices coming down the hall! I began "Mmphing" as loudly as I could! Thank Goodness! They heard me and pushed the door open. One of them pulled the gag from my mouth but after 3 or 4 minutes they could not budge the knots and one went to get help at the desk. A maintenance man came, he had a pen knife and slowly I was becoming free. When the cord keeping me hogtied was cut I was helped up and able to sit on the couch. Looking at a small wall mirror I looked like a UPS package. One girl held a water bottle to my mouth as I sat, still waiting to be cut free, which took about ten minutes. Although I wasn't really hurt I was still frightened and very embarrassed having my staff members seeing me so helpless. I occasionally awake at night thinking I am bound and gagged. I also feel disappointed with myself for not being able to get myself free. But at least I am safe and thankful.

OMG, that had to be so frightening. I can see how a situation like this could leave a person feeling very vulnerable. But from reading this my thoughts were how strong and brave you were. To even be able to write about it shows great strengths. When bad things happen to an individual, people they know will often feel sorry for them, sorry about what happened to them. This can sometimes can make a person feel week or think they look week. But not true. Just from reading your post I felt a strength in you and I bet those around you did too. You are so lucky, blessed,and strong to have survived and be able to share about it.

Hello Susan, Well I must say, this is one of the most unexpected posts I've read through on here so far! My very first question is, surely you reported all of this to the hotel staff and the police, right? Likely the hotel would have surveillance footage or some guest record of the people who bound you and stole your purse. Were they ever brought to justice? Why do you think they targeted you? Do you think they knew you, or just noticed you were alone and had a good opportunity to rob you? I can understand how the situation would be frightening and embarrassing, and more than that would make you feel so vulnerable and humiliated being forced to the ground and tied up. I can imagine where you'd be concerned whether you're about to be molested or raped, or even harmed, shot or murdered if these people are sickos. That sense of a lack of safety would definitely follow you around from then on. (I haven't been through anything like that, so I can only imagine and speculate what you're feeling like, but there have been other things that have completely shaken the sense of safety I once felt throughout life.) I can also only imagine how much more weight you would feel about something happening to you, with your partner and two young children relying on you. It actually sounds like you were a lucky victim, if there is such a thing. I mean, at least you weren't harmed in any way like you said, and it sounds like your robbers were going after you purely for the money. I don't want to give them too much credit, since after all for all we know they crime. For all all we know they did it for the thrill, and maybe they did have a gun they could have intended to use if they felt they needed to. But I almost feel like you could compare the people who robbed you to one of the people in the Cage the Elephant song "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked." It all comes down to money and survival, and maybe they were just pushed over the edge to the point where they decided they had to commit the crime to get by a little longer. I could be wrong and they could have been drug addicts or something, but for the time being let's assume they were just people who fell on tough times and turned to crime for the cash they needed. I also understand feeling ashamed that you were unable to get yourself free. But hey, we can't all be James Bond and break out of a perilous situation with gusto. Life isn't always like in the movies. For future consideration, I'm sure you'll be more cautious and look around you when entering doors and going places alone. You could think about carrying a pocket knife or something in case some situation like this ever arises again. Or some other deterrent, or means of alert/self-defense/escape. At the very least we now know that wearing pants and long-sleeve shirts can really come in handy if you're ever bound tightly with cords! Just sort of spit-balling here now, but anyway this really is a riveting story if it's all true. Feel free to keep posting here to discuss the issue further, and how you've been coping with the aftermath of it ever since. I'm glad that you made it out of the situation okay and are alright now. Talk about whatever is on your mind that you feel comfortable sharing here.