Different ways to track somebody down

There are a kazillion ways to use mass media for him to be seen. Skyjacking; maybe seen through a window, Publisher's Clearinghouse winner; he can't collect if he refuses the interview -- it's part of the entry form. Arrested as a terrorist due to mistaken identity. Catches a foul ball at the World Series?

There is the coincidental meeting. I ran into a mall for some insignificant reason, while traveling. I was only going to be there a moment and then I was leaving the state. I passed a girl I had dated 3 years earlier. We watched each other go by surprised at the meeting. If not for that one specific minute I'd be married to someone else now.

A psychic? A reluctant psychic; refuses to believe he/she is "receiving images"? A phony psychic that got lucky?

He accidentally dials a number from his past and his voice is recognized?

He could get rear-ended by someone that knows someone that knows someone... My parents had a party and invited some of their friends. My sister had some friends over too. Turns out one of my sisters friends had T-boned one of my mother's friends the year before and the outcome of the litigation was not satisfactory for either of them. They met in our house. That was a fun night.

He vacations at the same resort that the other person does? This same idea would work with a party, a concert, a political lunch.

Someone needs a transplant and HE has to contact the old family.

A chat room encounter turns into a physical meeting. Surprise! I'm your ex-wife!

New jobs. They land jobs at companies that need to do business with each other and turn out to be business contacts.

Only your imagination is holding you back. Be creative.

You know how in books and movies, people are always saying "no way, that's way too convenient..."

Well, this is your chance to do all those things. In a story like this, the coincidence or one-in-a-million chance is the whole point.

Are you looking for ways that someone deliberately finds him, or accidentally? I assume this is after he fakes his own death?

DustySterling said:

I have a character who has gone to great lengths (mainly changing his name and moving) to not be found by his family. I have two people who I want to seperately find him. I need help with ideas on how to find someone who doesn't want to be found. My MC is now married and lives in a different state.


Like in History of Violence *spoiler warning*,,,,,,,,
when Viggo is made out to be the town hero and all over the news. That's the only thing I can think of.

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I'm sure he's on myspace. kidding.

A relative of a friend or schoolmate has to see him in his new town and approach him... then they'll report to the relative back home and then the school mate will come to town, and so forth.

Such super ideas. Boy, makes the ideas flow like a river.

I had an ex-tenant who was tracked down (by the police) through a pet's health records. They had changed names, moved, etc. but they had the new vet contact the old vet for copies of the records, and the police had requested that the vet notify them about requests for the records. (this might also work for medical records if there was a subpoena involved asking for just the forwarding location, not the records themselves)

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/69492/out_of_the_closet_and_into_trouble.html if you want the whole gory story

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Chance meeting? I was sitting in a cafe in Mexico City, there on a business trip, and glanced across the street. A guy I had not seen since high school Spanish class was sitting in a cafe over there - also on a business trip. We had been selected because we spoke Spanish.

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News video? I briefly appeared in some news footage and my mom was deluged by calls from friends wondering what I was doing "there".

A chance sighting on Google Earth. She recognized his bald spot.

I have no idea if this would actually work or how the guys looking for him would be looking for him in this way. But what if a friend of the runaways decides to help his friend by throwing the other two guys off guard by using the runaways credit card because he knows the other two guys are looking at his credit card purchases and where he bought things from. So the friend goes in the opposite direction that the runaway is in, moving from city to city; meanwhile, the runaway goes to buy something and has no choice but to use his credit card? or maybe if someone is with the runaway and he/she uses it without asking the guy? I don't now if that would work. It's something that just popped up.

I went to high school in northern Ohio. Three years after high school, I'm working in a bar in South Carolina, and a woman walks in, pauses, and says, "Patti, is that you?"

We had been science lab partners our junior year in high school.

I ran into a guy I hadn't seen in a year in the grocery store. We got in the same checkout line. We ended up dating for four months.

I ran into a friend I hadn't seen since high school twice. We both went to college in Boston and ran into each other in popular spots for the college kids.

When I was living in Berlin, Germany, I went out to a club with some friends, got piss-ass drunk and one of my professor's daughter (whom I'd met a couple weeks earlier) spotted me hurling my guts out in a garbage can in the subway station. (that could be an interesting way for your characters to find him....it's even possible he doesn't remember the event the next day because he was so drunk).

You find people the same way "America's Most Wanted" finds people. Humans are creatures of habit. We smoke the same cigarettes after we "disappear" that we smoked before leaving, go to the same type of bars, engage in the same recreational activities, do the same type of work, express the same opinions about politics or television or kids. Even people that take the extraordinarily difficult step of cut themselves off completely from family (even Josef Mengele maintained some degree of clandestine contact with his family) still send out hundreds of signals about who they really are. The question is whether the person searching for the individuals has the ability, time, and determination to sort through the multitude of individuals who send out similar signals.

jennifer75 said:

I'm sure he's on myspace. kidding.

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Actually I was going to say myspace. Bill collectors use it to hunt people down. They look at your pics to see license plate numbers, house numbers, street signs, etc. . .

My friend is a skiptracer.

For years I always had these chance meetings only when I left the house looking horrible, having had the thought "Oh, no one I know will see me." The last one I remember, I was living in the middle of nowhere in Western Massachusetts, and I went across the street from my house to the 7-11. I had dirty hair, unshaven legs, and was wearing the ugliest shirt I owned. Of course I ran into a girl I went to high school with (in New York City) who was much cuter than I was... and undoubtedly was reassured that she still was. She was living in a city a few miles north and I have no idea why she was at that 7-11.

This has stopped happening because I decided never again to leave the house in a state where I'd be embarrassed to run into someone from high school. But you know, maybe that's kind of a shame.

Three years after my marriage in the United Kingdom, I boarded a flight in the Caribbean. I had an aisle seat, and the passenger next to me started showing snapshots to her companion in the window seat.

I couldn't help glance sideways, and to my astonishment the photo being displayed at that time was of my best man, whom I hadn't seen for three years. They'd visited him several days earlier in Panama!

If there's any official interest in this guy -- then you have to add social security numbes into the mix.

It's hard to live in the real wold without using your SSN.

If he still has the same name, a lot of states have open public record databases with marriage information in them.

Florida, for instance. If I know your name, I can find out the address of the home you hold a deed for, or the name of your spouse and the date you got your marriage license. I can even find out when you applied for a building permit for the house you own and are renovating at 333 [blank] Road, Scott and Debbie [blank]! Who married in 1999!

When I was still SINGLE!!!

Not that I ever look for public records of past boyfriends, or laugh hysterically at their mug shots on the Dept of Corrections website.

Even with a name change, a lot of that information is public record.

Don't forget the electoral roll. It is the usual starting place for all reporters. It gives address, age, occupation and other useful starting points. Available in Post Offices and Public Libraries, also available on line in most countries.

If your character is trying to be descrete this would be the easiest and least official avenue to start, from this you can get all the other documents.

I had the wildest thing happen last summer. I started a new job in Jan. 2006, and made some new friends while I was there. That summer we were at one of my coworkers house, BBQing, and her brother showed up. He has just gotten out of jail in Greece after a 3 year sentence (don't ask). I took one look at him and said, "Holy crap, we have met before." Of course he is looking at me like I am crazy, as is my coworker and my husband. I keep pestering him with questions all night long, trying to figure out where we have met, and the coworker starts talking about her other brother.
Turns out that 4 years earlier I served in the Army, in Germany, in a little tiny post with their brother, whom he looked similar too.
Anything is possible.

Siddow said:

If he still has the same name, a lot of states have open public record databases with marriage information in them.

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Another big source of info is the Mormon Church that somehow, for some reason, keeps records on lots of people. My father spent much of his retirement doing genealogical research of the family, and he spent significant time going through Mormon records as well as going to courthouses and cemeteries in counties where relatives had lived and were buried. I have no idea how or why the Mormons have these records - both my parents were Baptist, and come from a long line of Baptists (and for so long it was strongly frowned on to marry outside your religion...).

Siddow said:

Not that I ever look for public records of past boyfriends, or laugh hysterically at their mug shots on the Dept of Corrections website.

Even with a name change, a lot of that information is public record.

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And I imagine the police are pretty good at finding a person's aliases - criminals tend to be criminals regardless of the name, and when you have arrest records for a dozen people, all who have the same mugshot (taking into account aging and whatnot) and fingerprints...

I vaglely recall a story of someone put into the witness protection program that the mob eventually found and killed - traced down because of a very unusual model of tennis racket he/she used. It may have been a fictional tale in some TV police drama, but it shows the extent mobsters might go to, as well as the possible mistakes someone in hiding might make.

Yeah the Mormon thing is quite strange. I'm Catholic and they have my family records and we have never been in the US!!!!

The reason is from what I have been told and read is it has something to do with keeping track of marriage and bloodlines within the Mormons, something to do with salvation and who gets into heaven.

There probably some sort of invitation list and they don't want the wrong sort! (Bad joke)

The other related reason is they have bought old stores of archives and records and back up records from other places. (I think the site where I read it is genealogy.com or something like it).

Also polygamy was common among the Mormons in the early days so I suppose it was important to keep track of the bloodlines so you don't end up marrying your cousin or something. It makes sense if you think about.

I mean look at what happened to the Royals when they married their cousins and stuff