Urban Survival, Escape, & Evasion: PT 1

• Have contacts who you trust who can provide you reliable and accurate information. Start developing these contacts now, before you need them.
• When “going gray”, it is very important to choose a new identity or persona, then completely change your appearance to fit your choice. You should be nondescript (unless you're purposely trying to give a certain impression in accordance with your new identity). Begin with unremarkable clothing items that you're chosen "character" would wear, are different from your previous style, and always pay attention to the smallest details.
• Many people online give false information about what it means to “Go Gray.” You become invisible not only by wearing average, boring clothes... but by fitting the persona you are trying to portray. Clothes which make you look nondescript and not a worthwhile target is a good place to start. But, it's important that you build the character you are becoming in your mind first, then build your appearance around the new you.
• No hat, no sunglasses indoors (these give the impression that you’re hiding something), wear a large shirt to carry concealed items and weapons on your person (think El Sicario Covert Concealed Carry Shirt).
• Wear a money belt (like Greg's Traveler's Money Belt), which will allow you to carry hidden documents or small valuables and hide them in a pat-down or mugging scenario.
• Carry a bug out or EDC bag at all times.
• Be willing to go to any means necessary to accomplish your goals. Go to a third world country if you need to. These countries often have cash hotels and you can give false names much of the time. You must always maintain the profile of your chosen identity.
• Wherever you’re staying, always assume everyone has a key to your room/apartment/house.
• To detect if anyone’s been in your room, arrange items in a particular way on the desk or nightstand. Take a picture before you leave with your phone and compare the picture to the state of the items when you return. If they are disordered slightly, you will know someone’s been in your room. Another alternative is to leave a small, nearly invisible object like a human hair, piece of clear tape, or dab of super glue somewhere which would cause it to be moved if someone touched something.
• To be quick and always ready to go, tie a string from your belt to your bug out bag so that you can find it quickly and easily, even in the dark. Sleep fully dressed, and in this manner, so you're ready to move with no notice.
• Do not go anywhere you’ve been before. If you had a routine, you must certainly not follow it if you need to go off-grid. Take different routes than you usually take. Use different transportation and change up the way you travel; use a taxi, use public transportation, change your name and your story, but make your story as close to your real one as possible so you don’t raise any eyebrows and you can easily remember it.
• You must think of yourself as a completely different person.
• Wear different shoes, change your stride length, be aware of tracking mediums (for example shoes, car, tires, electronics).
• Be mindful that many places have facial recognition software. Avoid stadiums, airports, bus stations, etc. in developed countries.
• You may need to get creative at times, this may mean bribing people to get what you need, or in a worst case scenario, making threats/kidnapping.
• Post disinformation on social media. Say that you’re interested in traveling to a particular place and go somewhere entirely different. Leave your cell phone on a public transportation, connect it via collar to an animal, or pay a kid in the street to use it (depending where you're at) so you can’t be tracked. Try your best to spread disinformation about where you’ll be.

Article by Dion Roloff