Paying with cash is easy. The hard part is acquiring more of it to continue to live your life after it runs out, while doing so off the grid. That would either require a job that pays cash under the table, or stealing/forging an identity, or maybe panhandling on the streets. Thats not to say those things are impossible, but theyre really hard to do, especially while remaining unseen. It would also be really hard for him to avoid being recognized with all the publicity his case has gotten. Just like it was really hard for him to leave Ugly Tuna without being seen. Do you see where I am going with this? It would be hard enough for one of these things to happen, but when you string together all of them, you get a theory that just seems incredibly unlikely.
Two of my closest friends live in Columbus and never heard of Brian Shaffer until I mentioned him and they have lived there for over 20 years. Just because we keep up on Brian's case doesn't mean other people will automatically recognize him.
There are plenty of jobs that pay cash that don't require panhandling or breaking the law. I have a friend who made a great living selling jewelry at a large flea market. Only a few years ago did he start accepting CC payments and that's because of how easy it is now with a smart phone.
I have another friend who sells pecans on amazon (don't laugh) in bulk and makes about 4 K monthly. Now that's not under the table obviously but my point is there are a multitude of things Brian could be doing and how do we know he's not in a relationship. This would make it even easier if he collected his on line business profits in another persons name.