A nine-year-old girl, allegedly kidnapped by her grandmother, has been found using a mobile phone signal and Google Street View.

A police officer and a firefighter in Athol, Massachusetts, joined forces after authorities were alerted that Natalie Maltais had been taken. Officers used GPS in the girl’s mobile phone to find her approximate location.

They fed the co-ordinates into Google Street View, pinpointing a hotel where the child was subsequently found…

Police officer Todd Neale contacted the mobile phone provider, AT&T, which gave him GPS coordinates every time the phone was activated. Police must submit a compliance form to the phone provider to request location information.

Officer Neale then got in touch with Athol’s deputy fire chief Thomas Lozier who…used mapping software to determine the location of the co-ordinates given to him by Officer Neale over the radio. Then he turned to Google street view. He found the location on Google maps and looked at the Street View, which shows eye-level photographs of the area. That’s when he spotted a nearby hotel.

“I noticed the hotel in the area, and as I was panning the map, I was able to see the road sign at the intersection,” he said.

Officer Neale alerted the Virginia state police, who found the missing child and her grandmother in the hotel as predicted.

Geek coppers and geek firemen rule!