20 Crimes Solved Using Google Maps

20 Crimes Solved by Google Maps

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at 20 unbelievable cases where Google Maps and Google Earth helped police catch the bad guys.

Murder in a Spanish Village

The car that captured this Google Street View image couldn’t have had better timing. It helped Spanish police catch two murderers more than a year after their victim disappeared. The photo was taken in the tiny village of Tajueco, and shows a man stuffing what clearly seems to be a human body into the trunk of a car. It turned out to be the body of a 33-year-old Cuban man who was reported missing by a relative in 2023. Investigators later found his remains buried at a local cemetery. They were able to use the Google Maps image, along with other evidence, to arrest the two suspects believed to be responsible.

Kidnappers Use Google Maps ... & Get Caught With It

In 2017, two assailants carjacked and kidnapped a woman on her way home from work, then assaulted her while they drove around town in their truck. When they dumped her on the side of the road, they left little evidence behind, and the chances of catching them weren’t good. But the victim was smart – she’d made a mental note of every detail she could, including the fact that the kidnappers were running Google Maps on their smartphone. With Google’s help, police used location data to find users who were running the app in places the woman remembered driving past during the assault. The search led them straight to the kidnappers, who were arrested and convicted.

Weed in Plain Sight

The aerial views available on Google Earth can be breathtaking. They can also lead to some random arrests by police, sometimes completely by accident. This has actually happened more than once when it comes to the pot farming industry. Cannabis collectives have been caught by authorities in places as varied as Oregon and even Switzerland, the latter of which led to an astonishing sixteen arrests back in 2009. Over one metric ton of marijuana was seized from that bust, while the Oregon pot farm was on a comparatively smaller scale. Here, the farmer in question did have a license to raise thirty plants on his property … just not the ninety-plus police discovered on camera. Oops.

Bike Mugging

Crime doesn’t pay, kids … especially when it’s caught on camera. A teen was robbed by twins while cycling in The Netherlands back in 2008. The pair swiped the boy’s cell phone and all his money before taking off … but not before the Google Street car snapped some incriminating photos. The victim looked up the crime scene on Google Maps and was able to identify his attackers via the still images taken by the car. This evidence helped lead police to an arrest, and a confession, as the Dutch twins were apparently already wanted by authorities for other crimes.

For more breakdowns of compelling cases and true crime stories, scan the QR code on screen to join WatchMojo’s 24/7 True Crime livestream.

Italian Tax Evader

Financial fraudsters are no match for Italian cops armed with Google Earth. In 2002, suspicions were high in Italy’s Guardia di Finanza when a businessman reported selling his villa in Sardinia for €280,000. The price seemed way too low. The villa had a swimming pool with a distinctive shape, so the finance police used Google Earth to locate the property. When they found it in the luxurious Porto Rotondo, they knew the man was scamming them, since property values there are notoriously high. An investigation into the man’s business dealings revealed that he’d dodged taxes amounting to €7 million. Do not underestimate the determination of the Guardia di Finanza.

Illegal Boat Dumping

Here’s another would-be wise guy who was outsmarted by Google Earth. A Florida deputy used his noggin after finding an 18-foot boat illegally abandoned in an undeveloped subdivision near Pensacola. Deputy Gregory Barnes scanned local neighborhoods on the app and found exactly what he was looking for: the same boat, parked in the driveway of a resident. The property belonged to Dwight Everett Foster, and when confronted, Foster admitted to dumping the boat. The craziest part is that at the time, the fee to take a boat to a landfill was only $18. The penalty for dumping a boat illegally, on the other hand, was a $5,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

Rainforest Protection

Google Earth and Google Maps haven’t only been used to help assist in solving person-to-person crimes – they’ve also been utilized in the ecological world as well. One example was the time authorities in the Philippines used the service to help crack down on illegal logging. Elsewhere, similar tactics were employed in Brazil, in order to hammer down on illegal deforestation of the country’s rainforests. Chief Almir Suruí embraced the internet in a huge way in order to help his indigenous people stave off illegal logging and mining at home, amassing photographic evidence and keeping Excel spreadsheets to help further his cause of saving the rainforest. Chief Suruí was even acknowledged by the UN for his efforts, with the title, “Hero of the Forest.”

Savers Thief

When an English IT worker was perusing Google Street View in his former college town in 2016, he probably didn’t expect to stumble on images of a theft in progress. Google’s camera caught the whole thing – the thief running out of Savers with a bag full of stolen merchandise and the employee chasing her down the street. Although her face was blurred, the Savers manager recognized the woman’s outfit when he saw the photos – and she was wearing the same thing when police turned up to arrest her. The next time your boss catches you messing around on Google Maps instead of working, just tell them you’re fighting crime.

Kidnapped Boy Reunites with Family

In 1990, 5-year-old Huang Jan was abducted on his way to kindergarten in Yaojia Village, China. He was renamed Luo Gang and sold to a new family 900 miles away. He lived there for the next 23 years – but he never forgot his real parents or his home. Huang wrote down everything he could remember and even sketched a map of the village, including a river and two bridges. He began posting on a website created to reunite stolen children with their families, and a volunteer pointed him to Yaojia. Huang searched for the location on Google Maps and was amazed at how closely it matched his sketch. He was convinced. He immediately flew to Yaojia and reunited with his family in a village-wide celebration.

500 Stolen Bikes

The human-made objects that are visible from space include the Great Wall of China, the cooling pond of Chernobyl, and this British man’s mountain of bicycles. It’s big enough to be picked up by Google Earth, anyway. The 54-year-old Oxford man was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of possessing stolen goods. Neighbors later reported that the pile had been accumulating for years, and that people brought the man bikes by the vanload. He claimed to be collecting the bikes for needy kids in Africa, though how and when he planned to send them remained a mystery.

Grandmother Kidnaps Granddaughter

In 2009, a young girl’s weekend road trip turned into a bizarre odyssey across state lines. Nine-year-old Natalie Maltais was staying with her grandmother Rose in Athol, Massachusetts when Rose called her daughter to say Natalie wouldn’t be coming home. The older woman then took off with Natalie to parts unknown, but thankfully, didn’t think to turn off the girl’s cell phone. Police were able to track it, but cell phone tracking doesn’t provide the user’s exact location. Investigators narrowed it down to a stretch of highway in Virginia and used Google Street View to scan the area. They spotted a roadside motel that looked like the perfect hideout – and they were right. Virginia State Police found Natalie safe and arrested her kidnapper grandma.

Paying the Pool Tax

A word to the wise: Don’t try and dodge the tax collector, especially in Greece. The country requires citizens to apply for a permit before building swimming pools on their property. As a result, authorities became a little suspicious when they found out that there were only a little over 300 registered pools in Athens. So, they went to Google Earth, and uncovered, get this, over 16,000 unregistered pools amongst the capital city. Pools that were going untaxed. Well, maybe we should say previously untaxed, since those white-collar property criminals were caught red-handed, and were forced to pay up.

Camper Theft

We’ve already established how violating it feels to be robbed, but what about having something swiped from right under your nose? In your own driveway, no less? This is what happened to the Soanes family back in 2009, when their brand-new Caravan was stolen while they had left their home. Scratch that, make it their replacement Caravan, since their first one had been smashed in a hit-and-run. There were no suspects in the case at first, that is until the Soanes’ eleven-year-old son looked up their house on Google Earth and bam! There’s the culprit in their driveway. It took some time for Google to unblur the image and supply police with the required information, but a suspect was eventually caught, charged, and arrested.

Exhibitionist Caught Red-Handed

If you commit a crime in broad daylight on a public street often enough, it’s probably only a matter of time before Google’s camera catches you. Australian Benjamin Moran was arrested in 2019 and admitted to exposing himself to unsuspecting women at least 33 times over the course of several years. Victims had reported him to the police multiple times, but no one knew who he was or where he was coming from. However, Google Street View had captured a photo of Moran scoping out an area in Brisbane in 2017 – thankfully with his pants still on. Investigators were able to use the image to identify and arrest him.

Murder Suspect's Green Van

In 2010, a backyard barbecue in South Carolina turned into a double murder. Army veteran Leslie Todd Parvin allegedly got into an argument with two other attendees at the gathering, Edgar Lopez and Pablo Gutierrez-Guzman. The fight became heated, and Parvin reportedly pulled out a gun and shot both of them. No one else at the party knew who he was, but they were able to describe his green Kia van to police. Investigators came up with a shortlist of possible suspects and began scrolling addresses on Google Maps. Sure enough, they found a green Kia van parked in one driveway. Parvin was swiftly arrested.

Home Invasion

We hope that no one watching this video ever has to suffer the shock and violation of having their house robbed. But, if you do, we hope that Google Earth can assist in the same way it did to the subject of this entry. A 2011 home invasion left an Oklahoma woman justifiably traumatized after being held at gunpoint by her attackers. However, three years later, a random Google Earth Street View search by the woman’s friend turned up still images of the exact people that the victim claims robbed the house, mere moments before they allegedly gained entry. The evidence was then turned into local police to assist in their search.

Drug Deal Caught on Camera

We weren’t born yesterday. We realize that the drug trade goes down just as often in broad daylight, and on city streets, as it goes down in back rooms, under lock and key. However, these dope pushers probably weren’t expecting to be caught in the act by the Google Street car back in 2010. Police were able to use the images captured by Google Street View to assist in their undercover operation that helped nab multiple dealers in the Jackson Street and Kingsland Avenue areas of Brooklyn, New York. To be fair, surveillance video and undercover officers were also used in the bust, but the Google Earth story just adds a little bit of poetic justice.

Murder of Nancy Cooper

She went out for a jog in July 2008 and never came home. Her body was soon found in an undeveloped area about three miles from her house. Investigators always look at the victim’s spouse first, and in this case, they found the smoking gun on Brad Cooper’s laptop. In his browser history, police found Google Maps searches of the area where Nancy’s body was discovered, and even zoomed-in images of the exact location where she was found. Cooper later admitted to his crime and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Prison Escapee

The internet has made it more and more difficult for criminals on the lam to escape the long arm of the law. This was definitely true in the case of Gioacchino Gammino, who successfully evaded capture for over twenty years, after a brazen escape while awaiting trial for murder. The alleged mafia gunman actually started a new life in Spain, severing all communication with his family while working in a low-key job as a chef in an Italian restaurant. A Google Maps image of the restaurant happened to show Gammino standing outside, while authorities used age-advancing technology to construct a composite sketch of what he would look like in the present day. It worked, and Gammino was finally caught.

Cameroonian Soldiers

In 2018, a sickening video depicting soldiers murdering a group of women and children was spread online. It was reportedly filmed in Cameroon, but the government brushed it off, claiming it was fake or was shot somewhere else. However, there were enough details visible in the video for internet sleuths to determine its true location. They began searching Google Earth, looking for the mountains and buildings that can be seen in the background. Using the app and other online tools, they were able to not only confirm that the shootings happened in Cameroon, but also pinpoint the exact location. The Cameroonian government was finally forced to act, and five of the soldiers were tried and convicted.

Which of these cases do you think is the cleverest use of Google Maps? Let us know in the comments below.