A Disappearing Act

Everyone has thought about disappearing at least once in their life, however most people never go through with it. But Evan Ratliff, Feature Writer for WIRED, decided to see how easy it really was to drop off the map in a digital world. In the December issue of WIRED, Evan chronicled his month on the lam, and the challenge posed to readers to find him.

The idea came about to Ratliff because of his fascination with people who chose to abandon one life and start a new one all over again. He had written a story about someone who had faked their death, but felt it was missing what it was really like to disappear. So Ratliff and WIRED decided to find out what it takes to fall off the grid and offer a reward for the first person who could find Ratliff in his new life.

The experiment left Ratliff dealing with a lot of emotions he wasn't used to. When he started the challenge, he severed all contact with his family, girlfriend and friends. "I was in this world where a lot of people were looking for me," he explains, "and I was completely paranoid about where they were, and how close they were to me." His life began to revolve around how to escape the people looking for him.

In order for Ratliff to stay ahead of the hunters, he changed his look a few times while moving around. Before the contest, Ratliff grew his hair out and let a beard grow in so he had options. In his brief stay in Las Vegas, he dyed and slicked back his hair, used prescription glasses and shaved so he was left with a goatee. This eventually evolved into what Ratliff describes as his "disguise masterpiece," where he shaved off just the top of his head and put tanning cream on the bald spot so it wasn't pale He also shaved his chin so all was left was a mustache and changed to another pair of glasses.

And while Ratliff was trying to keep himself hidden, there was a large online community who dedicated their time to finding him. People exchanged clues on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Ratliff was surprised by the amount of information people were able to find out about him. "I was pretty careful in the months up before it started, and trying to assess how much information can they really find on me," he said. "Anything that was connected to me online they were able to piece together."

Ratliff was eventually found after he had settled down in New Orleans, where he thought he would spend the rest of his time. Jeff Reifman, a Seattle resident, located Ratliff through his internet address and enlisted the help of some employees of Naked Pizza to go out on the street and look for Ratliff. "They caught me partly because I was taking some extra chances," he explained. "WIRED had sort of upped the ante a little and said if I did one thing every day I could win more money in the end. That helped expose me a little more."

You can read all the details about Evan's adventures on the lam here.
by Jenn Eaker