As I was on my way to get my kids from school last week, I noticed that other commuters were giving me a lot of strange looks. Since the windows of my 1995 Ford Explorer are tinted, I had no idea what they could possibly be straining to see. It's just me in an old beat up Ford SUV. What could possibly be of interest?
Later, my daughter and I were pulling into Wal Mart. It was a nice day and we both had our windows down. I swear I saw a woman actually stop her car, and dial her phone while glaring at us the entire time! I felt like I was part of some weird "pod people are out to get us" type of movie.
We went inside and suddenly, my tablet started blaring out an alarm that sounded like the old fire station alarms. At first, I was looking for the fire. My daughter told me what was going off and I was a bit shocked. I opened up my table to find an amber alert.
A young girl was taken by a woman who was driving a 1991 Black Ford Explorer.
So now I understood what was going on and why we were getting such odd reactions from everyone around us. Honestly, I don't know the difference in the model years either! 1991 or 2011, they all look the same to me. It did get me to thinking a bit about our society though.
In an instant, any person can be tracked and found. All it takes is just one emergency alert message that is forced out to all cell phones and mobile devices within a certain area. Who doesn't have a cell phone of some sort these days? Prepaid, post paid, stolen, gifted, burner or contract, almost everyone has one these days. Hell, thanks to Bush, there are even programs that enable low income people to get a cell phone with 200 minutes each month free.
So then, imagine that somebody has decided to hunt for you. Maybe they have good cause but maybe they don't. No, we've never heard of crooked cops or politicians that take advantage of the systems we have in place, right? Imagine that now you are being hunted. No where to go and no where to hide. Every mobile device in your current state and the states around you have your picture and description of your vehicle. Where would you go or what would you do?
I like to think I could get off the grid and stay there for some time. I'd pull a Sam and Dean (Winchester... look it up if you must!) and just start staying in dirty old hotels or empty houses. Hit up public wifi networks when needing to get online, but always use someone else's computer. I'd have to always travel back roads in order to avoid red light traffic cams.
When in large public places, I'd probably attach a tin foil hat and an old over coat and hold out an old tin cup. By pretending to be both crazy and a beggar, nobody would want to look at me long enough to recognize that I was the person on the alerts. For food, I'd hit up neighborhood gardens and farms.
Of course, I wouldn't be able to avoid detection for long so I'd have to use what little time I had bought off the grid to get out of dodge.
Imagine that you're being hunted. What would you do?
No comments:
Post a Comment