Google Earth used to solve crime

A police officer in western Florida has used Google Earth to solve a crime.

Santa Rosa County Deputy, Gregory Barnes, was trying to track down the owner of a one tonne fishing boat illegally dumped in a car park. The boat did not have a number plate or any other identifying details on it.

After drawing a blank using conventional research methods, Barnes used Google Earth to find where the boat had been located in the weeks leading up to its dumping.

The boat was traced to Dwight Everett Foster after Google Earth images showed it parked next to his house. Mr Foster is now facing a fine for dumping rubbish illegally.

I love stories about the Internet being used to solve crime, so this one is right up my alley. It's great to see Google Earth being used inventively and for all a good cause. Anything that helps solve crime rates highly in my books.

Have you heard of any other stories about Google tools being used inventively for the common good?

Alternative policing

Sometimes the police need help from the public to know who is responsible for certain crimes. This is where Crimestoppers comes in - by passing information on to the charity anonymously, people can help solve crimes, without having to worry about retaliation from criminals.

In some cases though, police need no help catching crooks - they drop themselves in it instead. For example, in Daytona Beach, Florida some car thieves accidentally rung emergency services while breaking into a car -¡menuda estupidez!- what a stupid thing to do!

While listening to the thieves discussing what items in the car were worth stealing, police were sent to the area where the would-be crooks were promptly arrested.

Policing can't get much more simple than this now can it. Unfortunately, if law enforcement sat around all day waiting for instances like this, then we would have a lot more crooks walking our streets. So what's the solution? Keep the calls to Crimestoppers coming in and we can fight crime together.

Man caught trying to break into prison

You sometimes hear about people that have escaped or absconded from jail but you rarely hear about people doing the reverse and trying to break into prison. Despite the absurdity of it, that's what a man in Oregon, America, tried to do.

The 28-year-old was seen by prison officials at 4.10am Monday morning scaling the Jackson County Jail fence. When police got the man down, he said he had been drinking and smoking marijuana before climb. He claims he had wanted to get help from the jail and when nobody answered the front door, he thought he would try the back.

The unfortunate man was booked by police for disorderly conduct and trespassing. I hope he got the help he needed elsewhere; as this story proves, entering or exiting a prison through anything other than the official entrance, doesn't seem to go down well.

Busted! Police find drugs growing in an old school bus

On I spy a crime we often highlight examples of criminals doing stupid things, like the Dutchman who reported his Ecstasy collection as stolen. Today I've read a story about some crims who seem a little more creative than your average crook.

Three men in North Carolina have been caught growing marijuana plants in, of all places, an underground school bus. The bus was buried eight feet into the ground, underneath a garden shed. Lenoir County Sheriff's Office says they had been looking for the source of the area's marijuana for years and had previously tried spotting the plants using a helicopter. It was only when a police dog fell through a disguised trap door to the bus that the underground loot of 68 plants was discovered.

Usually cannabis factories are easier to spot than this. These days police regularly use heat sensoring technology to detect them from the air, but they still need to be pointed in the right direction by the public. Watch the video below about the tell-tale signs so you can keep your eyes peeled.

When mistaken identity becomes a crime

As the oldest member of the I spy a crime team, I was most understanding about this lady's mistake. Still, there's a lesson to be learnt here - guns are dangerous and there is a good reason why they are largely illegal in the UK!