A 15-year-old missing girl was found by the FBI and safely returned to her home thanks to her Nintendo Switch.

The unidentified 15-year-old girl (due to her age) was abducted from her home in Virginia back in August 2022. According to federal court records that have now surfaced, agencies were able to locate the child due to her coming online on her Switch.

29-year-old kidnapper, Ethan Roberts, allowed the girl to bring her Switch with her when he took her to an apartment in Arizona. When the child connected the Switch to WiFi, she appeared online which had given an alert to one of her friends.

Her friend quickly reported it, which allowed the agencies to locate the apartment the girl was kept in, and quickly surrounded it.

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Eleven days after her disappearance, FBI records show that the Tolleson police located the apartment, and swiftly surrounded it. He was arrested on the scene.

Retired Arizona DPS director Frank Milstead had this to say:

It’s probably nothing that anybody even had thought of at this point. The fact that somebody else down the road – another child – was bright enough to go, “Hey, look, my friend is online, and she’s been missing, and I need to tell somebody.”

Everything’s connected to Wi-Fi to LTE (long-term evolution devices). A cell phone, an iPad, a watch, whatever it is – you can use those things to locate people. The bad guys need to know that the police are watching and that you’re leaving a digital footprint everywhere you go. We will find you.

Tolleson Police Department arrested Roberts on the spot and safely returned the 15-year-old to her home eleven days after she went missing. Roberts has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

Source: ABC 15