17 KiB
[BST] Help with an identity concealment storyline?
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Author: u/andor3333 *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2akhyv/bst_help_with_an_identity_concealment_storyline/
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Score: 6
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Created: 2014-07-13T06:47:38
Post:
I am working on a rational fanfic at the moment and I go by the philosophy that crowdsourced intelligent/rational! characters will be more intelligent than if I try and model them all myself. As such, I am testing this out to see if this is a good place for asking and if it will work. Anyway, here goes.
Question:
If you had to hide a car so that it could not be found, then immediately transfer to another vehicle of some time in a way that would give no information about you, how would you do it?
For example, you could leave it in a parking lot somewhere near a train station, but the police regularly check on cars in parking lots that have been abandoned for a certain amount of time.
You could sell it or trade it, but records are made. You could do it in cash or barter but then the person you did that with would recognize you. You don't want ANY information to be available later because RATIONAL! antagonist will track you and is thorough.
You could hitchhike but that isn't fast or predictable and you still have to abandon the car somewhere it ideally can't be found for at least a few weeks and then transfer immediately to the highway to hitchhike.
I need suggestions to use for my story. Preferably suggestions that can be explained in two sentences or less in the story. You can take more than two to explain here but it can't something I couldn't summarize.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Comments:
u/eaglejarl [+8] (an hour later)
Sneak into a junk yard, put the car in the crusher and call it good. You can bribe someone to do it for you, swap the car for the one that is supposed to be destroyed, whatever.
Alternatively, drive it into a deep lake / old quarry. Just make sure you erase the tire tracks from where it went in.
Alternatively, drop it off in the bad part of town with the doors open and engine running. It'll be stolen and run through a chop shop in minutes. For extra paranoia points, buy a lot of paint and give the car a new paintjob before you drop it off.
If you're really in a hurry, just take the plates off and torch the car -- soak it in gas inside and out, toss a road flare in. The shell will be found but there won't be any fingerprints, DNA, etc. You'll probably want to scratch out the VIN too. http://www.autocheck.com/consumers/car-facts/vin-numbers/find-vin.do for where to find it.
Getting a new car -
Cover yourself up (e.g. hoodie and sunglasses, keep your head down) and hire someone to go into a junkyard and buy you a wreck. The junkyard owner (who is easily findable) knows nothing about you. The random citizen who bought it for you is not easily findable (being utterly random with no obvious connection to you or the junkyard) and never saw you enough to identify you.
How moral is our protagonist? If you did the 'hire someone' option above, you could kill them and bring their body with you until you can dispose of it.
Alternatively, you could carjack a person in a deserted area, kill them, and bring the body until it can be disposed of.
Ways to dispose of a body:
Best way is to dump it in a barrel of nitro-hydrochloric acid; it will even dissolve the gold fillings in their teeth and their wedding band, let alone their flesh and teeth. Failing convenient chemical stores, you can:
bury it in the woods
tie a few cinder blocks to it and throw it in the ocean. Ideally puncture the stomach first so that gas buildup doesn't make it more buoyant after a few days
throw it in an incinerator
knock out the teeth to prevent dental matching, then pour gas on it and torch it to destroy face and fingerprints
u/andor3333 [+1] (9 hours later)
The protagonist is fairly moral and wouldn't kill an innocent. As for driving it into a lake, they still need an immediate transfer to another vehicle that won't be easily trackable. I think the immediate transfer is a limiting factor.
u/ArmokGoB [+1] (a day later)
What vehicles count? Bikes are easier to steal then cars, less identifiable, and can be transported IN the car and taken out just before disposing of it. You might also consider taking a taxi/hiring some local thug as a driver.
u/alexanderwales [+7] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
Easiest way would probably be for someone with a vested interest in not revealing its origins to take ownership of the car. So ... arrange for the car to be stolen.
Leave the keys in the ignition and the car running in a bad neighborhood, put a post on Craig's List, contact known criminals, etc. Depending on the level of technology you have available, it wouldn't be all that difficult to anonymously set up someone to take it. They would never have to see your face, and so couldn't reveal information about you if they were caught (which they wouldn't be, assuming that you can hand over the paperwork).
u/andor3333 [+1] (9 hours later)
This is a good idea, though it might get reported to the police and other unpredictable factors since you are involving someone else. Also, what would you do to immediately transfer transportation?
u/alexanderwales [+5] Time flies like an arrow (10 hours later)
Well, with no prior plan in place, you're pretty much stuck with having some unpleasant problems, it's just a matter of picking your poison. Give the constraints you've outlined elsewhere in the thread, I think sticking the car in a parking garage is probably sufficient - that would likely give you around a week. I know the parking garages that I've used in the past don't tow until three or four days have passed, and even then the van ends up in an impound instead of being registered with the police, IIRC. Long-term parking at an airport would actually be my recommendation, since airports generally connect to bus lines and have a plethora of taxi cabs ready and waiting (assuming they don't have the resources to fake their way onto a plane).
If they're in a big enough city, it would be pretty easy to ditch the car in the hopes that it got stolen and then simply walk to the nearest bus stop or train station.
If they're worried about the plates being run, and they judge they have sufficient time, they could stop in a random parking lot somewhere and swap their plates with someone else before ditching the car, which buys even more time, and likely goes unnoticed for a significant length of time.
u/andor3333 [+2] (10 hours later)
I really like the idea of airport parking to bus. I thought about airport parking but I didn't think about the airport connecting to bus lines. I think unless someone comes up with something better I'll run with that. Thanks!
Would you like me to credit you in my author notes if I use this?
u/alexanderwales [+1] Time flies like an arrow (10 hours later)
I'd never turn down credit :)
u/andor3333 [+1] (10 hours later)
I will link you when it goes up. I have no idea when this will be as I am currently finishing up the first chapter.
u/ulyssessword [+4] (51 minutes later)
How long does it have to stay hidden for? There's a big difference between planning for a couple of days and planning for a year or more.
u/andor3333 [+1] (8 hours later)
Preferably at least two weeks. A week would do if there was no alternative.
u/mynoduesp [+1] (5 days later)
Why not put it into a car park which facilitates long term parking, as pay for a year or something. The service exists, they roate your tires, start the engine every now and again etc. Simple and straightforward.
Or just remove the plates and set it on fire and take the bus.
u/SaintPeter74 [+3] (7 minutes later)
How about adjacent automated long term parking garages? Don't know if you can just pay cash, but with a careful pre-arrangement you could probably disable the cameras and/or conceal your face.
u/andor3333 [+2] (15 minutes later)
I like the idea. If this was a prepared attempt then that would be absolutely perfect. As is, this is an unplanned escape that has never been considered. The character is planning on the fly in the van and doesn't have time for much setup.
u/Harkins [+3] (7 hours later)
Buy a house, park in the garage, stop paying the mortgage and let the bank deal with it when they reposess the house.
...what is the actual threat that someone is attempting to defend against, and what are the resrouces available? Without that you're mostly going to get useless answers.
u/andor3333 [+1] (9 hours later)
They have enough money to buy a small house, but that is the entirety of their resources and they want to use it efficiently. This will likely be necessary later in the escape so it needs to be done as cheaply as possible. They have the van itself. That is it. The threat is an attack by someone that they do not know but who they fear has a great deal of resources at their disposal to track them down .They don't want to give out any information, including which of the group survived the attack, if at all possible. The car can be found, but ideally no one can report seeing them and it won't be for two weeks, though a week would be sufficient.
They want to transfer to anonymous transportation as soon as possible because they fear the unknown assailant has put the car's plates into the police's database or will soon do so.
They are operating without knowledge of the assailants capabilities and are assuming the worst due to certain elements of the attack, including a belief that the attacker might be able to track them if they are in the area near the attack for too long regardless of how anonymous they are. They want to be out of the state, in anonymous transportation, with their old van rendered unfindable for one to two weeks, using as few resources as possible.
u/eaglejarl [+2] (9 hours later)
One thing you could do that's pretty simple: paint the van in hippy signs and switch the plates with any random car on the street.
Painting it like a hippy van has several advantages: painting a van a different color is hard to do without it being obvious that it's been repainted (paint isn't quite even, little splotches on the chrome, etc. Painting it as a hippy van, no one is surprised if there's a few glitches in the paint job. It's greatly distinct from its original appearance, and no one is paying attention to the faces of the people in / around it, because they're too busy looking at the van.
u/andor3333 [+1] (9 hours later)
The difficulty here is the lack of time. They would have to stop while on the road and get paint, paint the car, and would still need to leave it and transfer. This also wouldn't disguise the plates if they drove it. They really want to swap entirely sot here is no identifying factor.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (12 hours later)
paint the van in hippy signs and switch the plates with any random car on the street.
cough, cough
u/None [+2] (25 minutes later)
If you don't need the car later, you can abandon it at a trash dump for old cars, or forge papers to "return" it to a rental-car company.
u/andor3333 [+1] (37 minutes later)
How would you get an immediate transfer to another mode of transportation? The rental company would remember seeing you and would notice the new car in their inventory. The trash dump is a good idea but I am pretty sure there are procedures to identify cars being trashed. Are there ways around these things?
u/Charlie___ [+2] (13 hours later)
Why do I have to switch cars? Are the police watching for this particular car? If so, I'd probably just switch plates, drive along country roads, and give my car a crappy spray paint job.
If I really need a different mode of transportation, hm. Carjacking or identity theft seem too difficult for me. Probably the easiest would be to look up someone who's selling a used car, and then lie through my teeth (sob story, fake name on bill of sale, pay with cash or forge check). Alternately, maybe I could acquire a fake ID and buy train tickets with cash.
Of course, this is a very "lifeboat" scenario - all alone in the middle of the ocean. How about borrowing a friend's car? Having a friend buy your train tickets / rent a car. Call up my parents and get them to buy me a plane ticket - or even come pick me up.
u/andor3333 [+1] (17 hours later)
This is a lifeboat scenario (for plot reasons) and the protagonist is assuming the police may look for the car within the day. You could go without the swap, but I am hoping for an alternative with maximum anonymity/paranoia about discovery.
u/duffmancd [+2] (a day later)
I don't know how common this is in other countries but in Melbourne, Australia parking on the side of the street is common in suburbia. So just park it behind another car in a random backstreet. Each household assumes it belongs to one of the others near by, bystander effect means it wont get reported for a month at least if it is in reasonable condition (i.e. it hasn't been in a gun fight). Then you walk to the nearest bus or train stop and disappear.
u/andor3333 [+2] (2 days later)
I like the thought. It is a bit unpredictable as it depends on the homeowners not being nutty about parking. (I have, if nothing else, complete faith in the suburbanite ability to turn minor parking annoyances into apocalyptic threats to all they hold dear and precious.) That said it is, barring outliers, a great idea if you choose the location wisely.
u/ArmokGoB [+2] (a day later)
Drive it into deep water at night, or leave it deep in the wilderness as far away from the road it gets before getting stuck, and bring a bike in it. If the sizes work out so that can be a motorized bike, it might also count as the second vehicle.
u/iamzeph [+2] (2 days later)
Are you sure we're not helping you commit an actual crime? ;)
u/andor3333 [+1] (2 days later)
I actually have had to deliberately sabotage some of my ideas for the fic so that I won't be training criminals. (my identity theft arc is shot to pieces- what a shame) I am not sure how I should be feeling about this...
u/Traiden04 [+2] (5 days later)
If I might offer a late entry to the mix. Buy a tarp for cars, bring the car to someplace semi-public pull into a driveway for a house that has a for rent sign. If you can manage it talk to the person you of the building for rent if you could rent the place for a few days and cover the vehicle with the tarp. Call for a taxi or take a bus or other form of public transportation. The tarp stops the car from being readily id'd and stops most people from lifting the tarp to see what is under it. Rent is a lot cheaper than buying a house outright, even for one month. Pay in cash and you are almost untraceable as you can get. The person you rent the house from might be able to ID you but for the short term you are golden.
u/andor3333 [+1] (7 days later)
I think I may actually go with this. If I do, I will message you later.
u/RMcD94 [+1] (3 days later)
How much time do we have to hide the car?
If we have a warning of a day or something I still think driving out to the middle of no where, ditching it, finding a road and hitchhiking (or walking back). Then when you need to get the car back you either hitchhike back out, or take another car but burn that car when you get there. If you don't have to get the car back you can just burn it in the woods, or drive it into a pond or the sea.
It doesn't have to be impossible to find, just unlikely, chances of someone walking through a forest in the middle of nowhere have to be damn low, you could also just put it in a storage garage.
- Buy the car you're going to escape with, find someone on craigslist, show up in a balaclava, buy it in cash. Buy a new set of clothes and put it in this car.
- Take that car and put it outside of town, somewhere no one will find it for a few hours, out the road and hidden.
- Come back into town, walking or cycling or hitchhiking, take your old car out there.
- Get out your old car, throw all your clothes into it and burn it.
- Simply get into the car you bought earlier that day, literally seconds between switching transport.
u/andor3333 [+1] (3 days later)
The car ditching is planned while in the car on the run. The attack completely blindsided them and they have to get away anonymously and fast.