Taiwanese police managed to track down the man who lost his Nintendo Switch by using Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ in-game mailing function.
In New Horizons, you can send mail. You just purchase a postcard, write whatever it is you want to write, and then send it to whoever you want to send it. The recipient can be anyone on your island or anyone on your friend’s list, and you can even send them a gift if you really like ’em.
And if those friends are nice, they’ll even point out to the police where the owner of a particular Nintendo Switch can be found.
Which is what recently happened in Taipei, Taiwan. Mr. Jheng was out at the bank just grabbing some cash when he forgot he’d placed his Nintendo Switch on top of the ATM. A good Samaritan later found the Switch and handed it to the Taipei Police.
Which left the Taipei PD in a tough spot. The Switch didn’t have any identification on it, so they had no idea who it actually belonged to.
But then, someone on the force had the bright idea to use Animal Crossing to find the owner. After figuring out how the in-game mailing system works, an officer sent this message to one of Jheng’s friends:
“Hello. This is the police station at East Helping Rd, Daan branch, Taipei City. The Switch has been parted from its owner and was turned in. We do not have other means to contact the owner, so please help us and reach out on our behalf so they can recover it.”
The friend passed the message on to Jheng, who then hoofed it to the police station to grab his Switch. But not before the police message made its way onto Facebook where the locals got a bit of a chuckle at Jheng’s expense.
Source: NintendoSoup, Twitter
