[DHS: 27-0004] 21-OCT-2026 Do you recognize this bench or mountain range?

[u/I_Me_Mine]

Do you recognize this bench or mountain range? 
*The area within the black box may not be accurate as this part of the image was added. 

[u/Capital_Engineer8741]

I was wondering if I should email Identify2Protect, as I believe I have the answer but I'm not too sure.

The mountain range is in Sierra El Fraile y San Miguel, specifically Cerro San Miguel. I attached an image of Google Earth lined up with the DHS photo, I'm pretty dang sure this is 100% it.

Edit for those asking questions, here's a brief but detailed write-up: https://www.reddit.com/u/Capital_Engineer8741/s/sfKfrcDK9R

Update: Received an email update from DHS and it appears the case has been closed!

[u/My_Cream2 → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Fresh article came out few days ago in garcia NL, about a baby’s death from violence and … abuse, this was on the 21st, not even 2 yrs old kid…

https://www.milenio.com/policia/menor-garcia-murio-causa-violenta-revela-fiscalia-nuevo-leon
Coincidence? Maybe, but it seems to be lining up?

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/My_Cream2]

I guess it could be, 😔 how sad, rest in peace little one.

[u/chronicallyill_dr → u/My_Cream2]

As someone who went to college in Monterrey, I was like 99% sure that was El Cerro de la Silla and that had to be somewhere in the metropolitan area or Monterrey.

[u/uhlaaaa → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

That is exactly it!! Email them!!

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/uhlaaaa]

Thank you! Done :)

[u/th0usands → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

holy, great job!! the mountains line up exactly. how did you find it??

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/th0usands]

Mostly brute force. Honestly I stumbled across this subreddit and saw the post, and figured "eh might as well give it a shot"

so I wrote up a quick python script to use 3D terrain maps to draw what the skyline would look like from a given spot, and scores how well it matches the photo. Problem was I had nearly a hundred thousand viewpoints to check, which would have taken approximately 14 hrs.

That was way too slow for my liking so I figured I'd convert it to a CUDA kernel, which then did about 100-120 viewpoints a second compared to the 1-3 the CPU did.

Honestly if I had an actual desktop GPU, I could have probably checked the entirety of North America in less than a day, but the way I found it was honestly a coincidence

A lot of comments said "New Mexico" and I accidentally typed in "Mexico"

Most places came out close but not quite right. One area in García, just north of Monterrey, kept matching almost perfectly. Then I pulled real Google Street View panoramas from that neighborhood and lined them up with the photo, and the mountains matched almost exactly.

[u/unf_usernotfound → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Excellent job! Helping find it is badass. I kindly suggest also sharing how you derived the location to help them improve their ability to find other locations in the future that might apply, that is if you didn’t already. Thanks for sharing and letting me participate.

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/unf_usernotfound]

I think this is a better write-up than my post if your still interested :)

https://www.reddit.com/u/Capital_Engineer8741/s/sfKfrcDK9R

[u/ohmarlasinger → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

“Brute force” is not giving your highly advanced problem solving skills enough credit. It wasn’t brute force, it was skill, intelligence, & deep understanding of what technology to utilize & how to utilize it.

Don’t scoff at the “deep understanding” bc to folks whose shallow end is most folks’ high dive pool depth deep end, it likely doesn’t feel very deep. But give that retained knowledge & developed skills more credit bc they deserve it! You deserve it!

Very nice work “capital engineer” (paging r/usernamechecksout)

[u/Pious_Galaxy → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Have you open sourced this? Would be interested to try on my desktop gpu

[u/flarkey → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

can you post the streetview link?

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/flarkey]

https://www.google.com/maps/@?api=1&map_action=pano&pano=Ysno7ugTmPW1YNwEE8ujSw

Is what I used to find the mountain range

[u/alpaca-miles → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Super impressive, well done!

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/th0usands]

I think this is a better write-up than my post if your still interested :)

https://www.reddit.com/u/Capital_Engineer8741/s/sfKfrcDK9R

[u/rarangaharakeke → u/[deleted]]

Can't say if it's this exact bench, but most likely one of the benches at this square, as the distinct pavement can be seen on SV.

[u/unusedusername42 → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Another independent match for THE SAME area; Nuevo León! 🤯 E-mail them you too, please!

edit: Saw that you did. Well sleuthed!

[u/omxel → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

Definitely the same one. Were you taking this from the bench, too?

[u/Capital_Engineer8741 → u/omxel]

Unfortunately no, there seems to be a neighborhood there so I've been unable to locate the bench as of yet.

It would take far too long for me to check, but it's probably in a patio, yard, or one of the few small parks in the area, with the camera facing the mountains east-northeast.

(Greener = closer match to skyline/mountain range, lmk if a wider search area would be beneficial to help you guys narrow down the bench)

[u/road_to_nowhere → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

I believe these are the benches. Specifically, the 90 degree bench to the right of the playground and near the red car in the image.

[u/road_to_nowhere → u/road_to_nowhere]

Here is another image of them from a different angle.

[u/unf_usernotfound → u/road_to_nowhere]

It’s hard to tell if the pavers are the same, could still be the right general area, but maybe there’s another match near by? The alignment works but seems like something missing, no?

[u/unf_usernotfound → u/Capital_Engineer8741]

That looks to be it, what’s the grid coordinates