A woman has told of how she discovered a new use for Google Maps after spotting a picture of her late grandfather watering his plants.
Luisa Hoenle, 19, found herself browsing the internet when she decided to google the address of where her grandparents lived before they both passed away.
To her surprise the Switzerland-based art student noticed a familiar figure standing in the property: her grandfather dressed in overalls and green gardening gloves a year before his death.
Her grandfather, Siegfried, died in 2016 at the age of 93 from cancer and was a keen gardener.
She posted the images to Reddit and wrote: "Found my granpa on google maps, doing what he loved. He passed away two years ago due to cancer. He was the best Abuelito ever."
She told the blog Okay Whatever on Friday: "It was incredible to see him standing there, exactly as I remember him."
Luisa hared her discovery on the subReddit r/LastImages, and quickly found she wasn’t alone in her unearthing of deceased relatives on Street View.
Last year a woman in Taiwan was left in tears after she spotted her mother pictured at their home in Google Street view, four years after she died.
Net user Danny Wu was able to find her mother tending to the plants on their porch, immortalised on the search engine's satellite imagery.
"I've been looking for you for so long, Mum," Wu said in her Facebook post sharing the snapshots.
The pictures show the woman, with her face blurred, sitting on the porch of their home, appearing to be looking at the Google Street View car as it drove past.
Reddit user u/enchilada_boi replied to the thread: "Hello Everyone, after seeing the post on this sub about looking up loved ones who have passed on google maps I wanted to give it a shot.
"This is my great grandpa. WWII Vet and retried police officer who passed away 2.5 years ago. I still feel like I see him around town all the time. I miss you."
