Cops catch fugitive via WoW

World of Warcraft players- your addiction could land your ass in jail.

Via Mashable comes this tale of woe about one unlucky WoW player who found himself on the wrong side of the law- with warrants out for his arrest on charges of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance and dealing in a schedule IV controlled substance. The sherriff’s department in Howard County, Indiana learned the man, Alfred Hightower, had fled to Canada to evade charges. Unluckily for Hightower, one of the cops looking for him was also a total WoW geek:

“We received information that this guy was a regular player of an online game, which was referred to as ‘some warlock and witches’ game,” said Roberson. “None of that information was sound enough to pursue on its own, but putting everything we had together gave me enough evidence to send a subpoena to Blizzard Entertainment. I knew exactly what he was playing — World of Warcraft. I used to play it. It’s one of the largest online games in the world.”

Matt Roberson, the Sheriff’s Department deputy quoted above, was skeptical that Blizzard would help him nab the suspect:

“They don’t have to respond to us, and I was under the assumption that they wouldn’t,” said Roberson. “It had been three or four months since I had sent the subpoena. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on to do other things. Then I finally got a response from them. They sent me a package of information. They were very cooperative. It was nice that they were that willing to provide information.”

Roberson deduced Hightower’s location by getting a latitude and longitude from his IP address, and then used Google Earth to zero in on his suspect. Hightower was located in Ottawa and shipped to Minneapolis, where Howard County authorities have until the 5th to bring him up on charges.