Usually, a wander around Google Earth will be to look at your uni mate’s house or to figure out what random bar you stumbled into the other night.

But one area has sparked major concern online as people have spotted mysterious ‘help’ signs.

An empty lot in downtown Los Angeles has gone viral after a screenshot was shared to X in recent days.

Google Earth images show the word ‘HELP’ repeatedly written in the dirt as well as ‘trafico’ and ‘LAPD’.

Racking up millions of views, conspiracy theories soon began over what was going down there as locals were quick to provide an explanation.

The words can be seen on Google Earth (Google Earth)

Despite there being huge concern on social media over the unsettling image, police haven’t been able to verify any crimes that could connect to the ‘help’ messages.

On Sunday (26 January) morning, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson said the force had responded to an ‘unknown trouble’ call near the 101 Freeway and Mission Road.

"Upon arrival, officers conducted a thorough investigation and found no evidence of any criminal activity or threat in the area," a statement to The LA Times explained. Officers also added that the messages spotted on Google Earth were from 2023 and that they had notified Union Pacific Railroad

However, local news station KTLA sent out a helicopter crew for its news report, finding the words were still on the ground on Monday (29 January).

So, as was a given with such a viral theory online, one person said they went over to the area where they found a number of homeless people.

X user ‘LAguy310’ spoke to people there and claimed: “OK so apparently Jose is writing all the HELP signs.” They claimed a homeless man had been writing these alarming messages in the dirt for many years.

LJT

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Has anyone figured out what is happening in LA with these HELP signs, keep hearing tons of different story’s seems very concerning? @FBI looking into this?

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6:04 AM · Jan 27, 2025

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And the official LAPD Central Division account responded, shutting down the conspiracy theories floating about.

“We’ve had several different contacts with the individual you speak of. He has refused housing or a mental health evaluation,” it wrote.

“There is no evidence of Human Trafficking. He has been at the location for a few years.”

Union Pacific also backed this up as a statement to LADbible explained: “A man trespassed on Union Pacific and other nearby properties to repeatedly create these misleading messages.

“We do know the individual that creates these, does so on neighbouring properties as well.”

The company also echoed that there was no evidence to suggest someone was in danger.

LADbible has contacted the LAPD for comment.

For those with perhaps a little bit of extra time on our hands, or you know, who can’t help but procrastinate at every given moment, you might be all to versed in looking around Google Maps.

Ok, maybe a lot of extra time. It can kill quite a chunk of your day just scrolling around the world, dreaming of holidays, looking at the roads of people you know or finding weird, mysterious locations.

Like the ‘hole’ completely blacked out of Google Maps.

The site does sometimes black out places it doesn’t have access to or where people don’t want it publicly shown. But social media users have been absolutely baffled by a weird ‘hole’ in the middle of the water.

Google Maps

It appears as a mysterious island that looks totally hollow, with waves crashing around the edge.

People who have discovered the blacked-out spot weren’t initially sure of its exact location, with some joking they’d finally found the remote spot from Lost.

But in November 2021, after months of speculation, it was announced by social media users that the mystery hot spot is actually an uninhabited island called Vostok Island, belonging to the Republic of Kiribati, a country located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And a diver finally showed us the reality.

A YouTube video, published by National Geographic over 14 years ago, was later unearthed by eager spectators to the mysterious island.

In the clip, first posted on the video-sharing social media site back in April 2009, diver Enric Sala claims he has just enjoyed one of the best dives of his life, exploring the wildlife of Vostok's rich coral reefs.

"Well, we just came back from a dive on Vostok Island," the diver told viewers on the popular video. "I just did the very best dive of my life."

Eric went on: "There were [indistinct] sharks around us, schools of jags, barracuda and surgeon fish, everything!

"Incredible! Really unbelievable. This is the most pristine place we have dived so far. We have found it, this is it. Vostok Island.

"I cannot wait for tomorrow to get back in the water."

The island remains to appear blacked out on Google Maps, however, despite its identity having been confirmed.

This led to several initial conspiracy theories, including that it’s a 'censored' destination.

“My first thought was that it’s censored," one Reddit user previously wrote.

"It wouldn’t make sense for a natural formation to be black like that in such a shallow, small atoll/island."

Another social media user suggested: "What you see as black is actually very dark green, it’s a very dense forest made up of Pisonia trees".

And, of course, others added: “Ladies and gentlemen, they have found the island in Lost.”

If we’re all being honest, using the proper image satellite view on Google Maps is only really something we do when we’re having a play about or trying to see where your posh mate’s parents live.

But it seems the Google feature can be used for much more serious reasons, as it once helped solve a tragic death after a men vanished for almost a decade.

Back in 2006, David Lee Niles was reported missing in Michigan, US, by his family after they failed to get in contact with him. The 72-year-old was last seen when he said goodbye to a friend at a bar in Byron Township.

He was apparently battling cancer and poor mental health at the time, and is said to have been feeling unwell when he ‘abruptly’ left the place.

A search began for Niles, but essentially went cold, due to no progress being made, and it was just assumed he was dead.

His family eventually put an obituary online in 2011, saying he has passed away ‘and only God knows the time and place’.

But fast-forward to 2015, and Google Maps came into play in helping to finally solve the mystery.

In November, Brian Houseman was decorating a Christmas tree outside Cook Funeral Home not far from the bar Niles had disappeared from. And he could see something rather strange in the near distance.

He decided to scale the tree when he spotted what looked like a car sunken in a nearby pond. Houseman recalled on WOOD-TV: “All of a sudden, it's like, 'Whoa, there's a car out there.'"

The man added that ‘no one’ could have ever seen it as it ‘was murky and things moved around’.

Understandably, with some worry over what it might lead to, he alerted the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.

And it’s reported that investigators had a quick check of Google Maps, where the outline of a car was visible from above.

A dive team was sent to the scene where the vehicle was recovered. Tragically, Niles’ remains and his wallet were found inside.

His son-in-law said of the grim find: “For us today, it's a closure of a long search. Why God waited nine years, I have no idea, but we're happy. It's good to have him home."

And Lt. Ron Gates told As It Happens: “The vehicle had been there for a while. There were no tracks in the grass.

"It looked like the vehicle had been there longer than one day."

While the car and his body were found, the mystery over Niles’ disappearance remains relatively unsolved.

A man decided to get in touch with a scientist after discovering the eerie truth about a 'suspicious pit' on Google Maps.

Canadian Joël Lapointe was using Google Maps to help plan his camping trip in Quebec's Côte-Nord region when he stumbled across a weird-looking pit.

It was about 15 kilometres in diameter and something seemed off from the start.

Lapointe then noticed that there was a ring of mountains, approximately eight kilometres, surrounding the nearby Marsal Lake, which was 100 kilometres north of a village.

As suspicions grew, Lapointe wanted answers, so he got in touch with French geophysicist Pierre Rochette to find out more.

That's when the expert suggested that the site could be a potential meteorite impact crater.

According to NASA, an impact crater 'is formed when an object like an asteroid or meteorite crashes into the surface of a larger solid object like a planet or a moon.'

"Looking at the topography, it's very suggestive of impact," Rochette, with the Centre de recherche en géosciences de l'environnement in Aix-en-Provence, France, told CBC.

Rochette is now part of the team of scientists who are investigating the site, having already received samples from the area.

They have so far discovered that the sample is, in part, made of zircon, which is a resistant mineral that transforms under the effect of an impact.

Tara Hayden, postdoctoral associate at Western University's department of Earth sciences, added: "It could tell us about when it was delivered to Earth.

"That's the wonderful thing about impact craters. We get to have this link between Earth and the outside universe."

This comes after 31 impact craters are currently located in Canada, Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University, pointed out.

He noted that a 'lot of geologists looking around and occasionally making discoveries like this'.

"It's quite easy with Google Earth these days to go on and find structures that are circular or semi-circular in origin," Osinski said.

"You know, nine times out of 10 they're not [craters]."

But the team have seen enough to suggest that this site deserves more looking into.

All that is needed to continue their research is funding.

"It's super exciting," said Osinski. "It doesn't happen too often."

Hoping to lead a team out there in 2025, he said many tests need to take place to confirm the site as a crater.

He says that if they discover shatter cones on the rock's surface, then they are in business.

"Those are essentially unequivocal evidence of meteorite impact," he concluded.