You can’t hide from Google.
An escaped convict learned that the hard way in December, after he was arrested by police in the Spanish town of Galapagar. It seems that, according to an investigator who spoke with Reuters, a photo of the man appeared on Google Street View — sparking a deeper investigation.
The Street View photo, which shows two men talking outside of a market, allegedly depicts the wanted 61-year-old Gioacchino Gammino. Gammino, a member of the Sicilian mafia, escaped from an Italian jail in 2002 and in 2003 received a life sentence for murder.
“The photogram helped us to confirm the investigation we were developing in traditional ways,” Nicola Altiero, the deputy director of an Italian anti-mafia police unit, told Reuters.
According to La Repubblica, Gammino had been living as a chef before he was arrested on Dec. 17. “How did you find me?” Gammino reportedly asked police (translated from Italian via Google). “I hadn’t phoned my family for 10 years.”
That level of care obviously wasn’t enough in a world where Google cameras rove the streets of every major and minor city in the world.
