"pickup was never made....
sight of many unmarked cars with antennas may have frightened the kidnappers"
so i can't help but think, if one is to read between the lines here, that:
since police were present, but, we infer, they are dismayed by the unmarked cars,
that then the
police must have been there in
marked cars, which seems to me would have been a
deterrent of a higher order....
which should dismay the kidnappers more than the random "good Buddy" on a CB
either way i think the whole scene should have frightened the kidnappers, the kidnappee, the police, the CB posse, the locals, and anyone else who doesn't like being in the middle of a hail of bullets.