lost and found

I read two different news about lost and found on BBC about 5 days ago. I had no idea if BBC put these two news  on purpose but they made me ponder about lost and found. The first news is about A dog that has been reunited with her owners in California after being missing for 12 years. The second one is about one criminal who got arrested after 12-year hunt. 

The dog was able to be identified when the animal services officer scanned the dog's microchip. The detail of her owner's contact details was available from the chip firm and she still had the same mobile number. The dog was found about 60 miles from where she had gone missing in 2010.

Police arrested the criminal after they were told he was thousands of kilometers away in Queensland the neighboring state of Victoria where the crime was committed. There had been several unconfirmed sightings of him across the country, but police had reached a dead end in their search in 2017. The criminal had experimented with changing his appearance and demeanor to evade detection, and he was discovered with items that could disguise him, such as hair dye.

Twelve years is a long time. In twelve years three American President would have been elected and left the white house, Australia would have moved 84 cm due north east, 3 world cups, etc. The first story tells me the power of IT. The chip lasted so many years presumably in rather rough condition. The dog would likely be living on its own and there is no telling what kind of life it was. The second one tells me that Australia is pretty vast and rather empty. A fugitive could escape the surveillance despite Police chasing him around (A reward of A$100,000 had been offered for information leading to his arrest). It also be due to people's tendency to mind their own business. In any case the criminal did his part by having items that could disguise him.

I guess this world is getting smaller by the presence of IT and internet. In the future I guess finding things, persons, etc. would be more and more easier so that some gives advice how to disappear from the Internet. Well, we could be lost from the Internet but as part of society we would still be recorded elsewhere, we have ID, bank account, school records etc. which all are available to authorities. 

We would never be nobody