Blizzard Helps Cops Nab Drug Dealer Via WoW

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Blizzard Helps Cops Nab Drug Dealer Via WoW



Just because a wanted man can hide out in another country doesn't mean he can hide out in Azeroth, as one unlucky drug dealer has learned all too well.

Police work can be pretty tough, and I don't just mean the stuff you see on CSI where they need to digitally enhance the image and then do the stuff with the evidence - I mean that if you're a local sheriff's deputy in Howard County, Indiana, and your wanted man can't be found anywhere in your state (let alone your county), your limited jurisdiction means there's not a whole lot you can do.

But that didn't stop Matt Roberson in his search to arrest Alfred Hightower, a suspected drug dealer whose arrest warrant had been issued in 2007 for "charges of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance and dealing in a schedule IV controlled substance, and two charges of dealing in marijuana." Roberson was determined to get his man, and this past summer enlisted the aid of U.S. Marshals to track Hightower down as part of Operation FALCON [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Falcon_(Federal_Dragnet)].

Their research turned up two tidbits of information: One, Hightower was living somewhere in Canada - though the Marshals couldn't do a thing without the exact location - and two, he was a fan of World of Warcraft, playing as a Level 80 Tauren Restoration-specced Shaman named Rastylnn on the Bladefist server [<a href=]. Though Robeson was initially only told that Hightower was playing "'some warlock and witches' game," further information helped the deputy piece together the fact that it was WoW - he knew Azeroth well, having played the popular online game himself, once upon a time.

While the idea of two WoW players - one cop and one criminal - having a virtual manhunt, running through the sewers of Dalaran before confronting each other by a waterfall like that one scene in The Fugitive is really kind of cool, that wasn't how it actually went down. Instead, Robeson gathered all the evidence he had and sent a subpoena to Irvine, CA-based Blizzard Entertainment ... but since Blizzard was located in another state entirely (and far out of his legal jurisdiction), the man wasn't confident that he'd hear anything back.

But hear back he did. It took several months - it looks like Blizzard is glacial in all things, from StarCraft II development to collecting data about a suspected criminal - but the developer cooperated fully, sending Robeson a package of information that included "everything he needed to track down Hightower, including his IP address, his account information and history, his billing address, and even his online screen name and preferred server."

From there, Robeson used the IP address to get a location (with help from Google Earth), and U.S. Marshals contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Border Services Agency to track Hightower down to Ottawa, Canada (which is the capital of Canada and not Toronto, you know). The Mounties picked him up, and brought him back over the border where he was taken into custody in Minneapolis.

This isn't the first time that Blizzard has cooperated with law enforcement officials - see the case of the Neal Stephenson [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93184-WoW-Player-Threatens-to-Hijack-Plane] crap right here.

I'd make the joke about "at least he'll have a ton of rested XP when he gets out," but the Penny-Arcade guys [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/1/] beat me to it. Ah well.

(Penny Arcade [http://kokomoperspective.com/news/local_news/article_15a0a546-f574-11de-ab22-001cc4c03286.html])

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TheYellowCellPhone

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Sep 26, 2009
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It thought it was creepy they could track us through our game consoles (the Xbox 360 theif), but a game itself? Now that's even more creepy.
 

Katherine Kerensky

Why, or Why Not?
Mar 27, 2009
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Oh. This is brilliant.
Heh heh heh...
I am only glad this happened...
"Stop! You violated the law! Pay the court a fine, or serve your sentence. Your stolen goods are now forfeit."
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Kinda old.

Still a cool story, though.
Definetly.

Nice to see the companies co-operating with the police! Who says Video games are useless, lol
 

Banana Phone Man

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May 19, 2009
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I think this is brilliant and wish it would happen to criminals more often.

TheYellowCellPhone said:
It thought it was creepy they could track us through our game consoles (the Xbox 360 theif), but a game itself? Now that's even more creepy.
I agree that it is creepy but as long as it's not you they are looking for I completely agree with what they did to track this guy. Shame they won't do this for my friends hacked 360.
 

TheYellowCellPhone

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Sep 26, 2009
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Thomas-101 said:
I think this is brilliant and wish it would happen to criminals more often.

TheYellowCellPhone said:
It thought it was creepy they could track us through our game consoles (the Xbox 360 theif), but a game itself? Now that's even more creepy.
I agree that it is creepy but as long as it's not you they are looking for I completely agree with what they did to track this guy. Shame they won't do this for my friends hacked 360.
They did -- hacked 360s cannot go on Xbox Live, but they can still play games.
 

The DSM

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Apr 18, 2009
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Someone who sells addictive substances on the most addictive MMO ever?

mmm... Delicious irony...
 

microhive

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Mar 27, 2009
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Just a reminder, Blizzard is allowed to do this since it stands in the license agreement. :D
 

Jiveturkey124

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Jan 13, 2009
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"While the idea of two WoW players - one cop and one criminal - having a virtual manhunt, running through the sewers of Dalaran before confronting each other by a waterfall like that one scene in The Fugitive is really kind of cool, that wasn't how it actually went down."

That was the best part of the article, I lol'd so hard in real life.
 

IrrelevantTangent

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Oct 4, 2008
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Hah! Who knew a tauren shaman would turn out to be a drug dealer? Come to think of it, I hope tauren shamans everywhere don't get accused of being drug dealers. God knows they get enough flack for allegedly being 'furries.'

CantFakeTheFunk said:
"While the idea of two WoW players - one cop and one criminal - having a virtual manhunt, running through the sewers of Dalaran before confronting each other by a waterfall like that one scene in The Fugitive is really kind of cool, that wasn't how it actually went down."
SQUEE!
 

Rednog

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Nov 3, 2008
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Further proof that Blizz hates shamans...

All kidding aside, I'm really curious as to how much evidence was in fact needed to have such a warrant to coerce a load of information from Blizzard. I wouldn't think it would be enough evidence based on spotty information that a person is playing an MMO under X name.
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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Sep 26, 2008
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TheYellowCellPhone said:
It thought it was creepy they could track us through our game consoles (the Xbox 360 theif), but a game itself? Now that's even more creepy.
It's no different than them being able to track your phone line, or even your cell phone to get an exact location.
 

KenzS

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Jun 2, 2008
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That's funny, considering I live in Ottawa and never heard of this before lol.
 

Aeshi

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Dec 22, 2009
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The_Oracle said:
Hah! Who knew a tauren shaman would turn out to be a drug dealer?
Those Shaman do mix up some crazy stuff for their "spirit-seeing potions!"