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July 14, 2011
Did Street View capture images of Phillip Garrido riding down the road?
The story of Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping has been all over the news lately, and it appears that Google's Street View cars happened to capture quite a bit of imagery of her abductor, Phillip Garrido. Thanks to GEB reader Bill for sending in the tip.
You can read Jaycee's story on Wikipedia (or almost any news site), but the short version is that she was kidnapped in 1991 and wasn't found for 18 years! Police visited Garrido's house various times over the years, but never looked in the back yard where Dugard was being held.
Viewing the home in Google Earth (KML
) doesn't show much, but if you switch to Street View mode you'll see Garrido pull out of his driveway and follow the Street View car down the road.
To get that close-up shot of him, continue south down Walnut and then west on Bown until you reach Viera Ave. At that stop sign, he gets right up behind the StreetView car as shown above. Of course, there's a chance that this isn't Phillip, but it seems quite likely that it is -- it's his van, coming from his house, and it's a male driving.
There have been a handful of famous people (possibly) spotted in Street View, but this is certainly one of the most high-profile. For other interesting sites in Street View, check out StreetViewFun or the Street View section on Google Earth Hacks.
Posted by mickmel at July 14, 2011 10:24 AM
Comments
Posted by: Mark at July 14, 2011 10:52 AM
hello, i thought id sent it to you back then, the google street showing his van driving around, and then the next day i was the one who posted it on boingboing after noticing the van.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/28/the-blog-of-philip-g.html#comment-575920
sometimes if you see some news event when one goes to google street view and look around the block you discover little things like that. i wonder if street view will have a 'history' option in the future just like google earth itself does for aerial views...
Posted by: terranaut at July 14, 2011 12:02 PM
Hi Frank
Great story posting but this shot was found first a few days earlier on this thread at Google Earth Community: "http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1254909"
Posted by: ts2426 at July 14, 2011 3:51 PM
Is there a feature in Google Earth that allows users to add a layer of contour lines. That would be very useful, especially for planning a hike or trek.
Posted by: Dave Cook at July 26, 2011 11:14 PM
It's great that Street View can help the police with their investigations.
Posted by: Rob Smeed at August 1, 2011 5:58 AM
Those odds are incredible. Of all people on the planet..... GPS tracking locates that guy.
Posted by: GPS Tracking at August 1, 2011 5:16 PM
A lot of people complain about infringement of privacy, but when technology helps capture criminals I'm all for it.
Posted by: Sweet Sun at September 2, 2011 2:37 AM
It's a great tool for the police.
Posted by: Solarce Panelso at September 5, 2011 12:15 AM
How long is the data stored for?
Posted by: Solar Geek at September 26, 2011 11:05 AM
I'm sure this could help the police solve lots or crimes.
Posted by: Solarspice at October 3, 2011 6:12 AM
This could be a good tool against terrorists.
Posted by: Solar Power is Good at October 4, 2011 9:31 AM
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Here's the original story on Boing Boing back in 2009:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/31/did-google-street-vi.html