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Google Street View may help cops close a 3-year-old robbery case

Wrong place, wrong time.

 

Miles Klee

Crime

Posted on Jul 18, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 10:42 pm CDT

If you commit a crime and three years later still haven’t been arrested, you might well assume you’ve gotten away with it. In the age of Google Maps, however, there are no clean getaways.

In 2011, KFOR TV reports, an Oklahoma City woman whose identity has yet to be released was the victim of a terrifying home invasion: Upon walking into her house and finding it “ransacked,” she was accosted by two burglars and held at gunpoint until they finished robbing her.

Then, this month, long after the victim had given up hope of her assailants being caught, a friend was looking at her neighborhood in Google Street View. The tech giant’s camera had snapped a photo of two men outside her home—figures she could readily identify as the burglars, despite Google’s policy of blurring faces. They appear to be moments away from entering the house. 

“Truly, they’re just two kids walking down the street,” the incredulous victim said, recalling that back in 2011, one of them paused to wonder aloud if “karma” would catch up to him. “It’s still pretty vivid. I can relive it every day, every time I walk in my home I can relive it,” she added. 

In theory, the men are still at large, and Oklahoma City police are now asking for help in bringing them to justice. Anyone recognizing their clothes or build should call Crime Stoppers at (405) 235-7300. As for other would-be criminals—well, here’s a reminder that Big Brother is watching.

H/T KFOR TV | Photo by Matt McGee/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

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*First Published: Jul 18, 2014, 8:15 am CDT