If you’re in trouble with the law, fleeing to Canada is making a pretty good go of it. But now one criminal has learned the hard way that if you’re going to leave your real world behind to escape prosecution, you’d better leave your virtual world behind, too.

At the tail end of a two-year manhunt, an Indiana sheriff’s deputy started thinking outside the box, and managed to pinpoint the fugitive’s virtual whereabouts – inside World of Warcraft, which the man was still playing. The deputy sent a subpoena to Blizzard, who responded without hesitation – sending all of his account information, including his IP and billing address. Oh, and his character – a level 80 shaman, I guess in case the deputy wanted to try to take him out via PVP first.

Thanks to Google Earth, they were able to zero in on the IP address and take the fugitive into custody, which was apparently the first time the sheriff had ever tracked someone down in Canada. I’m guessing they don’t let you play WoW in jail.

Of course, the most amusing part of this story to me is that the only reason the deputy knew where to look for the man was that he played WoW himself and guessed it as the fugitive’s virtual vice from vague descriptions of an online game. I wonder if he’s a paladin?

[Via Sphere]