When an Indiana cop learned an alleged drug dealer he was tracking was an online gamer, he got in touch with his inner geek and set to work.
Matt Roberson, a deputy in the Howard County Sheriff’s Department, learned his suspect had skipped the country and was somewhere in Canada. How to find him became possible once he learned Alfred Hightower played World of Warcraft, the massively multi-player, massively popular, online role playing game.
A subpoena to WoW maker Blizzard Entertainment netted Roberson Hightower’s account information. From there, it became a case of virtual police work.
“I did a search off the IP address to locate him,” said Roberson. “I got a longitude and latitude. Then I went to Google Earth. It works wonders. It uses longitude and latitude. Boom! I had an address. I was not able to go streetside at the location, but I had him.”
A call from Indiana to the Canadian Mounties later and Hightower’s on his way back to Howard County to face charges.
