Twenty-five days. That’s how long I lasted on the lam. Most people arriving at this site will already know the basics: Last month, after writing a story for Wired about people who faked their own deaths, disappearing from their lives to start again, I set out to do something similar myself. I would drop out of my own life for a month, and act like I was starting a new one. Wired, meanwhile, would offer a $5000 bounty for anyone who tracked me down. We set a few basic parameters and then, journalistically speaking, we turned out all the lights and plunged headlong into the darkness. You can read a summary of what happened here.
I’ll be describing those 25 days in great detail in the December issue. There were almost daily surprises, both in what I found myself doing, and what I saw (and, of course, failed to see) the “hunters” doing to find me.
But for now I wanted to offer an extended thanks. First, to my friends and family, some of whom were made unwitting participants in this privacy-obliterating endeavor, and all of whom—especially my wonderful girlfriend (whose name the dedicated hunters know already)—were incredibly understanding and played along. Also to Nick Thompson, who sacrificed an insane amount of hours from other work and from promoting his own book (“The Hawk and The Dove,” which is getting a fantastic response, and which everyone should check out), to serve as the lead investigator. Without Nick, the whole thing would have failed in a multitude of ways. As well everyone at Wired and Lone Shark Games (particularly Teeuwyn Woodruff and Mike Selinker), both for enabling it and putting in many of their own hours. And finally to all the folks who hunted me—and aided me—for contributing their obsession and ingenuity, and especially for (with a few pretty harmless exceptions) honoring the rules about harassing my family. Many have emailed—and I want to hear from anyone who followed it: eratliff@atavist.net—to let me know they were glad I was caught. I don’t blame them. And although I was disappointed, I’m pretty pleased that at least it was by a clever bunch like Jeff Reifman and the guys at Naked Pizza.
I’d also like to offer an apology, to people I encountered along the way and deceived about my identity. It was one of the worst parts of the whole experience. I’ve been contacting them individually to explain whenever possible (a strange journalistic endeavor, that), and they’ve so far been gracious and forgiving, taking the whole thing in the spirit of fun it was intended. But many I won’t be able to find, and to them I am sorry. I won’t write about anyone by name who hasn’t given me explicit approval to do so.
To critics who griped that it wasn’t “real” enough; that it was either too easy to find me or (as people argued right up until I was caught) too difficult; that a “true” man-on-the-run would or wouldn’t have done this or that; I can only say: You nailed it! I wasn’t, in fact, a “real” fugitive. Very well observed, and I fully support your conviction that you would have done it better. But in our case, we were trying to remain, as much as possible, both authentic and engaging, two goals that were often in conflict. In compressing my time on the lam into 30 days, with the general public as the investigators, we didn’t exactly have a model to follow. You may also find that many of the things people found most “unreal,” like me using my ATM and credit cards at times, were not at all what they seemed.
Finally, to accusations of carrying out a “stunt,” I plead guilty to all but the pejorative assumption—given that category would include the journalistic “stunts” behind “Hell’s Angels,” “The Paper Lion” (and other Plimpton adventures), “Into Thin Air,” and “Nickled and Dimed,” among other pieces of narrative nonfiction that I greatly admire. We attempted what we thought was a unique, albeit self-indulgent and inevitably flawed, reporting venture. We’re hoping readers will find the results as fascinating as we did. But you can check out the December article and decide for yourselves.
Posted at 4:32 pm | Filed under Articles, Crime, Disclosures, Recent stories, Vanish, Wired |
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10 Responses to “Found”
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Nice summary, man, good reading it in your own words.
I couldn’t really be too involved in the hunt since I walk the streets of the UK more than the sidewalks of America.
I did thoroughly enjoy the narrative which was forming on the topic #vanish on Twitter. It in itself was a rollercoaster and it became my morning read. On occasion I got the chance to throw my penny in the ring and offer up some info. For this I say thanks.
So long and enjoy the fish!
“both authentic and engaging”
Authentic, yes as much as it could be. Engaging, Definitely! I was glued to the computer just about every spare minute after work & weekends. Thanks for the diversion. Unfortunately FB games no longer interest me after #Vanish fun.
I’m actually sorry you got caught. In part because you seem like a nice guy, but also, I think, because I was hoping for the romantic idea that we can still disappear if we choose to. Of course your experiment doesn’t mean it isn’t still possible, and, indeed, isn’t still done every day, somewhere. :-)
By the way, I certainly hope you intend to divulge what your password response was in the story to be published this December.
Interesting to follow, Evan, and a great article too.
Having a serious interest in getting one criminal found (my sister’s killer – http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=51389), it’s useful to learn about some ways that could be used to find him.
Hope it was nice to return to “normal life” again – we missed you at Potlatch :)
Sarah
Thanks again for letting us into your life, Evan. Tey and I specialize in the top of the insanity ladder, but this was a few rungs north of that.
Mike
This whole idea was great. I am still speaking about it with friends.
What I found the most interesting is that you knew people get caught because of their habits and nonetheless your love for pizza played a great role in your “capture”
Fascinating work. Well done. It’s interesting to see Tor get stress-tested; I could see how a 28.8K modem simulator would get annoying after 10 minutes though, let alone 25 days.
It seems like the scales were tilted a little too much in favor of the hunters with the book reading event, though. Did you consider skipping it?
Well done; loved the piece. I was unaware of the hunt, though I was never tempted to click the popular twitter feeds.
Pretty extraordinary, considering you had been hunted down with group-sourced technology.