Evan Ratliff attempts to 'dissappear' and start a new identity.

Hand · 06-06-2011, 11:52

I thought this would make for interesting discussion, especially given the level of training that many here have undergone.

Full Article

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August 13, 6:40 PM: I’m driving East out of San Francisco on I-80, fleeing my life under the cover of dusk. Having come to the interstate by a circuitous route, full of quick turns and double backs, I’m reasonably sure that no one is following me. I keep checking the rearview mirror anyway. From this point on, there’s no such thing as sure. Being too sure will get me caught.

I had intended to flee in broad daylight, but when you are going on the lam, there are a surprising number of last-minute errands to run. This morning, I picked up a set of professionally designed business cards for my fake company under my fake name, James Donald Gatz. I drove to a Best Buy, where I bought two prepaid cell phones with cash and then put a USB cord on my credit card — an arbitrary dollar amount I hoped would confuse investigators, who would scan my bill and wonder what gadgetry I had purchased. An oil change for my car was another head fake. Who would think that a guy about to sell his car would spend $60 at Oil Can Henry’s?

I already owned a couple of prepaid phones; I left one of the new ones with my girlfriend and mailed the other to my parents — giving them an untraceable way to contact me in emergencies. I bought some Just for Men beard-and-mustache dye at a drugstore. My final stop was the bank, to draw a $477 cashier’s check. It’s payment for rent on an anonymous office in Las Vegas, which is where I need to deliver the check by midday tomorrow.

Crossing the Bay Bridge, I glance back for a last nostalgic glimpse of the skyline. Then I reach over, slide the back cover off my cell phone, and pop out the battery. A cell phone with a battery inside is a cell phone that’s trackable.

**Pete** · 06-06-2011, 12:54

He was not serious and dropped bread crumbs.

1stindoor · 06-06-2011, 13:04

He didn't do enough homework prior to his disappearance. Cell phones for his parents and girlfriend?...really?

People that "disappear" don't normally advertise the fact that they're disappearing.

**The Reaper** · 06-06-2011, 13:33

Good concept and article, poorly executed, though there are some lessons in what he did.

Trouble is, disappearing for 30 days and staying off radar with no electron trail leaves much to be desired as a written article and would probably not generate much interest in the search.

There are 12 million people living here illegally and doing this every day, mostly successful if they choose the right place to locate (sanctuaries).

The really interesting thing is to try and think about doing this as a bad guy in our country. Very thought provoking, to me anyway.

TR

1stindoor · 06-06-2011, 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Good concept and article, poorly executed, though there are some lessons in what he did.

Trouble is, disappearing for 30 days and staying off radar with no electron trail leaves much to be desired as a written article and would probably not generate much interest in the search.

That's what I was thinking. I better story, would have been for him to save money (cash) for a length of time, stash the credit and debit cards, take a bus to where ever, and disappear for awhile. Then once someone asks the editor, "whatever happened to...?" The timeline to find him could begin. This way he's been hiding for some time, living a seperate life, trail's long since cold, and he could find out that no one's really interested in finding him either.

**Peregrino** · 06-06-2011, 13:51

Definitely NOT a "Gray Man" approach.

akv · 06-06-2011, 14:52

Willie Sutton the famous bank robber was a master of disguise and hiding in plain sight. He would case a bank while in full police uniform. The story goes when in uniform he would browbeat drivers who asked if they could leave their car in a no parking zone for just a minute, and said he actually felt bad when once receiving a tongue lashing from a passing Police Lt. for having his top collar button undone. He would hit a bank and just vanish.

His secret, In jail, he taught himself fluent Spanish, so after a heist he could disappear into heavily Puerto Rican neighborhoods in Brooklyn. His theory being folks there read only local Spanish language newspapers and were less likely to ID him, as well as the NYPD wouldn't think to look for him in a neighborhood of another ethnicity.

Though a career criminal, he was proud to claim he never killed anyone, and the guns he used for his robberies were never loaded. He said he never felt more alive than when robbing a bank, and as a diehard Brookly Dodgers fan was so despondent when Bobby Thompson shot clinched the Pennant, he almost turned himself in.

Hand · 06-06-2011, 18:12

These were my impressions.
1 - He 'sort of' tried.
2 - His intent was not necessarily to disappear, but instead to assume a different digital identity and physical locale and stay hidden for 30 days.
3 - He lost his resolve when he discovered that there was a mental aspect to the exercise. Being isolated from what 'was', is not easy unless you have some motivation to leave what 'was' behind.
4 - As a proof of concept, he succeeded. A geek can do it. How much more so could someone with resolve and purpose?