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Numb3rs: Episode kidnapped
In this episode of the television series Num3rs, it tells about the sequestrum of a passenger bus by members of an armed criminal group which, in exchange for the release of the hostages have requested large sums of money. This group of criminals turned out much more intelligent than their counterparts, the law’s defenders. They have elaborated a set of estrategies and complex plans for dipping the police in a sea of intrigue, uncertainties and deceptions, but they do not know that the officers, soon will take advantage, and using mathematical theories, will take for completed all that confusing situation.

Incentivized by the play of strategies employed by the criminal group, the police investigator expert in mathematics will begin to assess the development of the incident like a classic problem of the game theory, and using this tool finally will end with the capture of suspects.

What our investigator faced and what tools used? We will study this problem reviewing the case which he faced.

We have a criminal group that just hijack a bus, they threaten people with their guns and paint with spray the windows of the bus for not betray their movements. There is a policeman on board and is the only one who quietly has contacted officers informing what is happening inside. The cops follow the bus and begin to negotiate with criminals. The police discover that they are heading to airport and advance to take advantage. Upon arrival, the cops ambush them, and using the video transmissions that sends the undercover cop, open fire and get into the bus but there is nobody!.The kidnappers are ahead.

Like in a game, here we have two players using strategies as they try to predict the behavior of his opponent to take out advantage, The police attacked but the criminals show to be smarter than them. Result that when the hijackers lost the sight of the police, they exchanged the bus and sent to the officers to another part.

The criminals upon learning of the aggressive action of the police, discover the informer and give him some shots. Disconcerted, the law officers speak with the wife of fallen cop, and heartbroken, she takes refuge in the waiting room of station.

At this point our researcher tries to predict the next move of his opponents and analyzes the situation using results from the game theory. The game theory is a mathematical research area which is characterized, roughly, by the study of trends in the behavior of people, the players, in relation with the things that they expect of the other ones within a scenario that we call game.

An important result in this theory is that, while we more play we more discover the strategies and ways of thinking of our opponents, and that is just what the researcher does, he tries to read the minds of the criminals.

As more the police falls in the games of the hijackers, the criminals more reveal themselves and that is what happens when the officers finally studied in detail the video of the kidnapping. The police discover that criminals used blank bullets and special effects when they shoot down to the undercover cop, so they decide to follow the deceased's wife and to the see that she met with him both were captured, confess, and reveal the location of the actual bus.

The police seeing that the kidnappers have been avoiding violence, conclude that know everything about them and conclude that they are harmless and do not want to hurt anybody, the cops went to the place and relased the hostages practically talking with them.

It is clear that in this case the mathematics do not support such results, first, the criminals and the police had much luck both, the police lost a bus and just when that happened, they exchanged the bus without anyone saw and without anyone fled, the supposed policeman died was captured by imprudent and brazen, the officers confronted the criminals and relased the hostages with the criminals armed and they do not killed them. Definitely, The cops took hasty conclusions and assumed high risks with very little evidence, mathematics help you to predict the moves of your opponent in a game, but never guarantee you that your prediction is correct. The behavior of humans cannot be externalized using mathematical rules.

In conclusion, this episode is too fictitious and is not a good example to demonstrate the use of game theory in real life.