Maine Man Arrested, Accused Of Driving Across US On Google Threat

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- A man from Maine was arrested Sunday on allegations he made criminal threats against Google and traveled across the country to confront the company for closing down his YouTube channel.

Mountain View police received notification on Friday from Iowa State Patrol that their officers had recently been in contact with Waterville, Maine resident Kyle Long, 33. Iowa State Patrol had spoken with Long twice that day, once after his vehicle was involved in a non-injury collision and a second time after he vandalized a restroom at a gas station store a short time later.

Long informed state troopers that he was on his way to Mountain View to meet with Google after his YouTube channel had been shut down, which he claimed was resulting in him losing money.
Employees at the gas station store in Iowa did not want to press charges against Long, and the crash did not warrant Long to be detained.

When Sunday arrived, Waterville, Maine got involved, alerting Mountain View police that Long met with Google personnel, and it did not go well. The man threatened physical violence on a different visit.

Mountain View police immediately began to investigate further and watched the Google complex in case Long would arrive. Officers had also been monitoring all major highways around Mountain View to try and intercept Long before he was able to get anywhere near Google’s main campus.

In addition to those measures, police notified all neighboring jurisdictions in case Long was detoured.
Just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, Mountain View officers spotted Long’s vehicle near U.S. Highway 101 and Moffett Boulevard. Officers conducted a high-risk car stop, and Long was detained.

Inside Long’s vehicle, officers found three baseball bats. His phone had called up directions to Mountain View.

Long is being held on $25,000 bail at the Santa Clara County Jail. His car was towed.

“This case highlights exceptional police work often unseen on a day-to-day basis; from the communication we had with two different departments in two different states, to the awareness and rapid response from our officers,” Chief Max Bosel said. “We very much appreciated all the efforts that were made across the country to do everything possible to prevent this man (from) bringing harm to others.”