CSI Google

In Moraga, California a man was convicted of hit-and-run after he claimed he thought he'd just hit a deer.

An in depth investigation let police to the home of Lee Harbert after finding debris at the scene including the hoot ornament from his sparkling clean black XJ6 Jaguar. After a forensic analysis of his vehicle, an earring of the victim was found beneath the wiper and it was confirmed that this was in fact the vehicle involved in the incident.

Mr Harbet claimed he had no idea what he had hit and as police were initially looking for a red/burgundy Jaguar he assumed it was a separate incident and did not come forward.

As the examiners dug a little deeper, Mr Harbets computer revealed the truth. Amongst many recent Google searches were "auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement," "auto glass, Las Vegas", "auto parts", "auto theft" and even "Moraga Police Department hit-and-run", which took him to the site asking for information on the incident.

When asked why he was so keen to get the car fixed out of state, Mr Harbet claimed he already knew his local Jaguar dealer didn't do bodywork/windscreens and he had no knowledge of the other searches on his PC.

He was convicted and sentenced to 3 years.

I had a quick dig online and apparently this is more common than you might think. There have been at least 2 prominent cases solved by Google. One was a wireless hacker who searched for "how to broadcast interference over WiFi 2.4 GHZ" and the other was a murderer who searched for "decomposition of a body in water" before disposing of the body in....you guessed it.....water.

Clear your history everyone or perhaps just stop killing people.