It seems unlikely that the world’s most infamous whistleblower and scourge of the NSA, Edward Snowden, will be visiting the White House anytime soon. But according to Google Maps, he’s quite literally set up shop on the front lawn.
If you search for the presidential headquarters using the service you’ll find a store called "Edwards Snow Den" at the front of the building. Google Maps classifies the business in a verified listing as a snowboard shop with five reviews to its name, with one glowing recommendation calling it a "great source of classified information".
So has America’s public enemy number one decided to recant and have tea with Obama? Not quite. The search engine has explained to Marketing Land that the listing is the result of a hack, changing the location of an actual snowboarding shop in Washington D.C.
The realEdward’s Snow Den is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and is verified by Google as a real address. But it seems there are more odd goings on happening around the iconic landmark too. Within the White House’s West Wing a listing has appeared for “cCross Law Firm” with a link to an animated page -- complete with jingle -- for what may or may not be a Japanese legal firm.
Whatever’s going on, we imagine this is the closest that the real Edward Snowden will be getting to American soil for quite some time.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
