Last week, disturbing messages saying ‘HELP’ spelled out on the ground in Los Angeles sparked fears among Google Earth users.
But it’s far from the first alarming and intriguing mystery unearthed by Google’s satellites and camera-toting cars.
Google’s camera-toting cars have taken more than 220 billion images while driving 100 million miles since ‘Street View’ launched in 2007, while Google Maps and Google Earth have evolved over 21 years to offer hi-res imagery of areas, including images shot from aircraft.
Images on Google Maps and Google Street View have helped to solve missing persons cases and even murders – and a growing number of fans use the apps to find strange and disturbing cases around the world.
Visuals captured by Google’s big brother system have also sparked investigations into alien markings.
We list the most shocking below:
The Street View murder
The image was captured by the first Street View car to visit the town of Tajueco in 15 years (Street View)
In December 2024, a disturbing Google Street View image helped to unravel a murder case in Northern Spain.
The image, captured by the first Street View car to visit the town of Tajueco in 15 years, showed a man loading a large white plastic bag into the trunk of a car.
Police said that another image showed a blurry silhouette of someone transporting a white bundle in a wheelbarrow.
Police said the images were ‘not decisive’, but police found severely decomposed remains in a nearby cemetery of a man who disappeared in October.
Two people were arrested over the disappearance.
The man found 22 years later
Google Earth helped solve the mystery of a man who disappeared in 1997 more than two decades later.
The car had been visible on satellite imagery since 2007, but went unnoticed for 12 years (Google Earth)
William Moldt had left a nightclub in Lantana Florida in 1997, and was never seen again.
But the missing persons case went unsolved until a local resident spotted a submerged car in a pond using Google Earth.
The car had been visible on satellite imagery since 2007, but went unnoticed for 12 years.
When police investigated the car, they found Moldt’s skeletal remains inside.
‘Alien’ patterns in the Gobi Desert
Strange patterns were spotted in China’s Gobi Desert in 2011, sparking a frenzy of speculation that they could be a message from, or to, aliens.
What made the strange patterns in the Chinese desert? (Google Earth)
Some Google users suggested the patterns were street maps of major American cities.
But analysis by Jonathan Hill of the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona University found that the weird patterns were most likely used to ‘calibrate’ spy satellites.
The half-mile-wide grid is probably painted on the ground, Hill says, and is used by satellite cameras to orient themselves in space.
‘The Eye’
A mysterious ‘floating island’ in South America sparked was first seen in 2018.
A KickStarter campaign was then started to raise money to find out what the strange feature on Google Earth was.
UFO fans thought that the circular ‘lid’ might conceal a base from which alien spacecraft would enter and exit.
The KickStarter never reached its goal, and more level-headed observers suggested that ‘El Ojo’ was in fact a naturally rounded piece of vegetation
Engineer Richard Petroni said in 2018: ‘We have discovered a mysterious island near the Parana river, which, intriguingly, moves and rotates on its own axis.
‘Besides, it features a neat circular structure bordered by another perfectly circular streak of water.’
‘It’s something real and accounts for several supernatural stories bearing connections to UFOs and other paranormal aspects.’
The KickStarter never reached its goal, and more level-headed observers suggested that ‘El Ojo’ was in fact a naturally rounded piece of vegetation.
Naked man in the trunk
German daily Der Spiegel published a truly mystifying image shortly after the launch of Google Street View in the country in 2010
German daily Der Spiegel published a truly mystifying image shortly after the launch of Google Street View in the country in 2010.
The image, captured in Mannheim, showed what appeared to be a naked man either getting into, or out of, the trunk of a car.
To add to the mystery, a sleeping or possibly deceased dog laid in the foreground.
After Der Spiegel published the image it rapidly disappeared from Google Street View.
The identity of the man and what was happening remain a mystery.
The Giant Triangle, Arizona
A strange equilateral triangle seen near the city of Surprise in Arizona prompted some to speculate about extraterrestrial involvement.
A strange equilateral triangle seen near the city of Surprise in Arizona prompted some to speculate about extraterrestrial involvement
But the mysterious shape actually has a much more earthbound explanation.
The triangle is actually an abandoned Air Force Base which ceased being used in the late Fifties.
The field was transferred to the ownership of the City of Phoenix.
The Christmas mystery
Google Maps helped solve a nine-year-old missing persons case with a crucial clue coming when a man was decorating his Christmas tree.
David Niles, 72, went to Jake’s Bar in Byron Township, Michigan and left abruptly in October 2006.
David Niles, 72, went to Jake’s Bar in Byron Township, Michigan and left abruptly in October 2006
But in 2015, local Byron Houseman climbed to the top of his Christmas tree to put up decorations and spotted a car in a nearby pond.
He was able to confirm it with Google Maps
‘No one could ever see it. It was murky and things moved around,’ Houseman said.
Kent County Sheriff’s Department was then able to find the car.
The ‘Ship’s Wheel’ in Canada
A mysterious pattern on the ground, resembling a ship’s wheel, was found in Canada.
The strange object sparked online speculation about the mystery (Google Maps)
But the pattern has a very sensible explanation – it’s part of a high-voltage DC electricity transmission system.
The object pictured, Bipole 2, is a part of a HIgh Voltage transmission line that transmits electricity in Manitoba.
It’s Direct Current, rather than Alternating Current, and the object pictured means current can be safely dissipated into grounding grids.
‘Help!’ in Los Angeles
Disturbing messages written on the ground in Los Angeles have taken the internet by storm, and now locals have shed new light on their meaning.
Google Maps images showed words including ‘Help’ written in Los Angeles
Google Earth users spotted multiple instances of the world ‘HELP’ spelled out using various materials on a plot of storage or waste facility in California city, located next to a shipping yard and near the Union Pacific Railroad.
The images went viral on social media over the weekend, sparking fears that someone may be trying to alert the public or law enforcement to a human trafficking operation in the area.
The images sparked speculation about human trafficking
One such person, who goes by ‘LAguy’ on X, spoke with a woman experiencing homelessness who lives near the lot.
She told him the words were written by a man named Jose who has been writing them ‘for years.’
‘[José’s] the one who puts [help] all the time,’ she said. ‘He writes it everywhere […] it’s been years,’ she added, though she made clear she didn’t know the reason why he has been writing the messages.
Others claiming to live nearby offered similar explanations.
The village of the dolls, Japan
Google Street View users have been freaked out by a village in Japan where strange dolls appear to be waiting at bus stops.
But the village is not haunted: the dolls are the work of a local artist, Tsukimi Ayano.
Google Street View users have been repeatedly freaked out by a village in Japan where strange dolls appear to be waiting at bus stops
She has for years been crafting mannequins and positioning them around her tiny village in a bid to replace her neighbours when they move away or die.
The village now has fewer than 35 inhabitants as the population ages.
Her hobby is an eccentric response to an increasingly common problem – more than 10,000 towns and villages in Japan are depopulated and crumbling as the countryside empties.
Winnie the Pooh at the South Pole
The bear is a Long Way from the Hundred Acre Wood (Google Street View)
Google Earth users found a strange oddity buried in Street View images of the area near the South Pole.
The image shows Winnie the Pooh, rather a long way from the Hundred Acre Wood.
The man dressed as the popular character seems to be holding a placard referring to the setting of the Christopher Robin stories.
Posters suggested that the image is taken near McMurdo Station, but the reason for the man’s appearance remains unclear.
