Before you decide to disappear and start a new life, it is important to consider just why you need to disappear. Not only can it help you understand, but it will also help you to know to what extent you have to stay hidden.
The resources of the individual or organization that you are hiding from will impact how deeply you need to hide yourself. The degree of motivation that an individual or organization will go to in order to find you will influence how deep your new identity needs to be. It is best to always over-estimate the resolve of those who are after you and keep your own estimations reasonable. If you don't properly estimate your opposition, you will start to behave in predictable, patterned ways and this can be a detriment to you. The predictability of your actions is what will eventually get you caught. Consider a few examples of how this impacts you.
If you are running from police authorities, they have both experience and resources to back them up and keep searching for you long into the future and depending on the crime you've committed will determine how hard they search for you. However, for you, the hunt is very much personal. The police know this and will use it against you just as you must use your knowledge of what they will do to try to find you so you can know how to evade them.
Hopefully, if you are reading this book, you aren't considering disappearing for illegal reasons. However, let's say you are already in the country illegally and looking to start a new life. You are going to be faced with immigration officials who historically have been under-staffed, poorly managed and staffed by individuals who don't have a lot of training. Unlike police officers, most of these officials want to help people, and don't have a lot of time and money to track people down once they are in the country, so most of their efforts are focused on keeping individuals out of the country.
I mention these two examples because it helps you to see the importance of understanding who is looking for you while you're on the run. Your objective is to disappear completely and start a new, normal life somewhere else. This objective applies to not just the two examples above, but all of the other reasons as well. And no matter what your reason for disappearing, you are all going to face the same problems when trying to disappear. However, the individuals trying to find others are quite different with varying resources and tactics. Therefore, knowing who you are hiding from will influence the way you choose to disappear and stay hidden.
The greatest influence on your behavior and decisions will be the resources of those looking for you. Depending on resources, you may be able to stay in the same state and simply hide out. However, if the people looking for you have greater resources, then you may need to leave the state in order to completely get away from them. If your opposition also has a great amount of resources, then you should consider planning your escape in a way that you are able to drain as much of the resources as possible. For example, if you are running from an abusive situation you should see if you can clean out the bank accounts before leaving so they won't have as much resource at their disposal to find you once you decide to leave.
Another option is to disable vehicles if you need to make a quick getaway. However, if you are going to do this, make sure you choose to do it in a safe and non-violent way. You don't want to commit a crime in the process of disappearing, otherwise you will open up a number of other problems for yourself. Consider a few options available to you.
Disabling Vehicles
There are a few ways to efficiently disable a vehicle without causing harm. The first option is to add long-grain rice to the radiator fluid. Make sure you do this when the engine is cold to avoid burning yourself when opening the radiator cap. Add as much rice as possible since this will clog the radiator and damage the engine. Then, when the individual starts the engine, the rice will warp the head, destroying it.
Another option is to add dirt and sand to the engine's crankcase. To do this, you will need to access the oil filler tube which is usually marked by SAE 30 or 10-40. Add as much sand or gravel as possible. Once the engine is started, certain parts that are needed not only for lubrication but cooling won't get oiled. This will ruin the engine and cause it to stop working.
Perhaps the quickest and easiest option is the traditional method involving the gas tank. However, with a lot of today's cars having locking gas caps, this may be difficult. If you have access to the gas tank, simply fill it with sugar. When it is burned with the air/fuel mixture in the engine it will caramelize and gum up the entire engine. However, if you add too much sugar, you will only clog the fuel line which won't completely destroy the car but will take awhile to repair.
There is another resource that your opposition has which can be more concerning to you than a vehicle. This is any weapons they may have. Especially if you are fleeing an abusive relationship, you want to deal with any weapons available before choosing to disappear.
Weapons and Firearms
If you are comfortable with firearms, and know your opposition has them and can use them against you, then you should try to acquire them before you disappear. You can choose to put them in a safe deposit box or any other location that your opposition can't get to. If you aren't comfortable around weapons, just make sure you keep your finger away from the trigger and you should be fine. Also, be aware of where you are pointing the barrel of the gun in case of an accidental discharge. Keep in mind... if you have neighbors around you, or should you live in an apartment, that a bullet can travel through walls, floors, and ceilings. If you are comfortable with weapons, you should probably clear it before transporting it.
If you don't want to keep the firearm around you can choose to place it in a postal box. When you do this, it will get turned into the police. From there the police will either keep it for several weeks while tracking down the owner of the weapon, or perhaps even destroy the weapon provided it hasn't been used in a crime. Often times if you disappear, even if the police locate your spouse, they won't return the weapon because of your disappearance.
As you can see from this chapter, there are a variety of reasons why individuals choose to disappear from society and change their identity. There are both legal and illegal ways of changing your identity. Some legal ways are citizenship, adoption, and marriage; but you can still do it if you are determined.
It is important that you also give careful consideration if choosing to disappear with children.