The footage would have been taken before Garrido was caught for kidnapping an 11-year old girl, holding her captive in his back yard for 18 years and fathering two children with her. It was spotted by the commenters over at Boing Boing, and assembled by the site into a gallery of Google Street View images. Boing Boing co-founder Xeni Jardin estimates the van follows the Street View vehicle for at least six blocks.

A psycho like Garrido, who thought he could control "a set of voices" with his mind, would probably have been freaked out by a van festooned with cameras driving by his property even if he didn't have something terrible to hide, which, in any case, he clearly did. So maybe he was, as Jardin wonders, following the van in some sort of panic. Or maybe this is a neighbor's car. But either way, the images are now just a terrible reminder of how long this evil bastard was able to roam free while three humans were locked down in his yard.

(Images via Boing Boing)

According to the Associated Press,

The U.S. company has hired two young cyclists to ride through gardens, historical sites and other pedestrian-only areas on the device to take thousands of digital photos.

AFP reports the bikes even have lasers attached to their (pole-) heads, to assist with some sort of future 3D system; excerpt from the wire service's video is attached. Google will blur faces on request, in Europe at least, but the policy is to do so by default only for people on the street; those in the privacy of their own homes get no such consideration. Google certainly wouldn't want to admit to a zone of privacy anywhere near your computer, after all.

[via Buzznewsroom]

That's the likeliest explanation for why one of the internet giant's vehicles slammed into a low bridge outside Pittsburgh. It was in the process of driving around and taking pictures for the Street View feature on Google Maps and Google Earth; hence, the crash has been preserved on Google's servers.

You can start here and keep clicking the forward arrow to watch as the cameras apparently get bent by the bridge, or just watch the video above.

You have to hand it to Google for having the good humor to leave these images online. The scene has already produced lots of chuckles over on Reddit.

Or maybe Google just didn't want to go to the trouble of deleting the wreck images. After an accident, the best approach is often to brush yourself off, pick up your camera and move on. Any spy worth his salt can tell you that.

Villagers in Buckinghamshire formed a "human chain" to stop one of Google's vans from taking pictures for the Street View feature of Google Maps and Google Earth. One particularly irked villager stopped the van before rousing his neighbors to join him in the street.

His beef? Thieving poors should not be allowed to ogle his valuables! Here's how he put it to the Times of London:

Mr Jacobs said: "This is an affluent area. We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police."

The van made a peaceful U-turn and left.

The story illuminates an important truth about privacy in the modern era: It's not so much an illusion as a precious commodity, bought above all with the time and energy the rich have (or hire) in abundance.

Unfortunately, most people can't afford nearly so much privacy as the citizens of Buckinghamshire. (One wonders how the police and driver would have responded if a similar mob had formed in a poor inner city neighborhood.) But don't let that stop you from setting up a neighborhood Google Watch group if you have the time and inclination.

It's a story so tidy, one almost doesn't want the British tabloid to bother fact-checking it. The paper's initial (and thus far only) source is a "top media lawyer" named Mark Stephens. Presumably, then, the anecdote will be confirmed as the case winds its way through the British courts.

It's worth noting that the Sun doesn't yet know so much as the name of the husband, much less posess the "Street View" image in question.

But there have been enough examples of unexpected and embarrassing Street View pictures that he point of the story stands regardless of whether it's fact or fiction: Google is happy to provide you with enough privacy — say, via GMail and GChat — to get yourself involved in some illicit scandal. Then it will happily bust you as that scandal unfolds in the real world.

(Pic: Amsterdam's red-light district on Google Street View, via The Next Corner)

UPDATE: Stephens mentioned this divorce case in a sly piece he wrote for the Times of London poking (it would seem) a bit of fun at the hubub over privacy as it related to Google Street View. After tracking the media lawyer down (via email, alas, not Google Street View) for a chat, we're confident the Sun is relaying his story correctly (in broad terms at least). We're confused, though, as to why a random blogger, "Idiot Forever," is claiming to have "duped" the Sun when he or she is clearly not the source of the paper's story. Maybe "Idiot Forever" was trying to put one over — on us. Shrug.

Two things. One, it's obviously Christmastime. Unless, of course, it's Halloween and Reindeer Man's wearing the world's laziest costume. Two, what's his friend doing? Holding his hair? Holding his head down so he doesn't splatter on his shoes? Google Street View should really stop and ask for clarification when they pass by scenes like this. [Google Maps UK via T3]

Update: British people are saying it's after a stag party, not at Christmas time. A thousand pardons, drunkards.

• Someone apparently climbing over a fence in San Francisco
• Borat peeking out of a window in San Jose, California
• The already infamous 'Hot Babes' poster van driving alongside the Google truck in Las Vegas
• A girl bending over, and two guys watching her...
• Ambulance driver stops for a sandwich
• A canine disagreement
• Strange, headless figures next to what looks like a newly dug grave
• Giant robot attack
• The alien invasion begins
• The moment when the Google van stopped for lunch, and the road takes a detour in the McDonald's car park

"This morning on my way into downtown I spotted the Microsoft live "street view" truck. I only had time to grab one picture before my exit onto J street. Its a cameraphone pic so its not great but you can see the cameras on top of the truck and the Microsoft Live logos on the back. I did not catch the name of the company out on the prowl for them either."

Related:
Google Street View: How They Did It [internal]