Victim Spots Possible Car Thief on Street View
You car has been stolen? Never fear, the Google Ninjas are on the case!
We've all checked out our house on Google Street View. Most of us will notice whether or not the curtains are drawn or if our car is in the driveway. However, one UK Street View browser noticed something else going on in his driveway: the theft of his camper van.
In June 2009, a £7,000 camper was stolen from a driveway on Cauldwell Road, Linton, Derbys. However, though police knew it had been pilfered between 9am and 2pm on the day in question, they had little else to go on.
Fast-forward almost a year to March of 2010. The owner of the aforementioned caravan is perusing Google Street View when he spots what he believes may be a caravan theft in progress. Standing in the his driveway, next to a 4x4, is large, bespectacled, bald man. PC Adrian Mason, who is investigating the crime, told the Telegraph the victim did not recognize the man or the car in his driveway and is appealing for information about him.
"It is amazing that we have such a clear image of a man who we think will be able to give us information that would help the police inquiry," he said, adding, "It was an amazing coincidence that the Google car was passing at that time."
Unfortunately, because Google has blurred out the license plate on the car, PC Mason isn't having much luck tracking the car.
"I've made extensive enquiries since the image was discovered but because the registration plate of the 4x4 is blanked out we have been unable to trace the man through his car," he told the paper. The police are now releasing the photo and appealing to the public for help in identifying him.
Source: The Telegraph via Jalopnik
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SInce this is a criminal investigation, can't the police ask Google for the original image with the clear license plate and timestamp?
I don't think Google keeps any of the originals after it's been modified to avoid lawsuits.
Google been in the hot seat lately of street view and wi-fi data mining so they are better off keeping the censored images.
If Google can collect peoples wireless internet information when driving around with street view, they should have the original photo still on their servers and a proper lawful subpoena or search warrant should divulge the missing plate.
hey. that's me. who post my photo up there without paying me?
SInce this is a criminal investigation, can't the police ask Google for the original image with the clear license plate and timestamp?
They can ask but I certainly doubt Google will provide this information without a court ordered mandate to do so. A lot of the times it isn't worth the time or money going through all of the trouble.
Hey, It looks like Dennis Quaid! Guess house squatting just went mobile!
Meh, the 'satellite' view has me moving in to my house five years ago. Thankfully, the whole thing is blurry and the boxes were arranged to look like a driveway pattern. And here I am thinking the coincidence was funny....
"Standing in the his driveway, next to a 4x4, is large, bespectacled, bald man."
Come on Tom's, I know you're smarter than this...
Is this an invasion of privacy...for the thief that is...
looks like he's zipping up his pants after taking a leak
Hey, It looks like Dennis Quaid! Guess house squatting just went mobile!
You mean Randy Quaid.
Why deos he apper to be doing up his trousers?
Had he also stopped mid theft to watch some porn as man did the story below did?
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Burgla [...] -8671.html
If so is this part of a larger international porn watching crime gang.
It stinks they have not been able to get their RV back or catch this man, or whomever responsible, but I do find it quite amazing at what these Google cams are picking up just on a random drive-by. Maybe he was hired by TOP GEAR, those guys hate RV's, and love smashing them, LMAO!
It's not a camper van, it's a caravan!
If you move to the next image down the street you can almost get a partial index of the 4x4, but the plate is obscured and out of focus.
Where is the FBI special software that unblur things and creates pixels to get 10x the original resolution of a photo ?
wow, guess we know where the keystone cops orginated. i know in the states that if you were to pull up the make and the model and the color and the possible years of that particular style, you could get every registered owner and their home or business address. and being as it's the UK, there can't possibly be that many to begin with as most people don't own automobiles like in the states. i don't know if the UK would require trailering endorsements either, but further inquiry as to how many of those particular owners also have a lisc. trailer also should narrow it down suffciently. then it's just a matter of seeing which owner has the brushgaurd, flared wheel wells, sun roof, full length running boards, the sheild sticker in the mid windshield passenger side, and centered roof mobile phone antenna.
this is not distiguishing enough already for the bobbies? what is this some landrover safari package? lol
Where is the FBI special software that unblur things and creates pixels to get 10x the original resolution of a photo ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk
@f-14
Well even if the database doesn't go into that much detail, if it does show a picture of the owner you could flip through the remaining ones and just wait for his picture to be the one you're staring at.
not only should they search their database of car registration to get a list of owners, but they can also cross reference it with know thieves prone to public masturbation!
Now who's pushing street view censorship?
You wanted it, you got it. Deal with it.
Epic fail.
@f-14
because there could only be what a handful of those cars floating around the UK...... erm hate to break it to you, this is not the third world, owning a car is not a novelty, just like the US the majority of homes have a car too, sure not 2 or 3 cars like the US but still at least 1 car, even if there were only 100 of those cars sold in the UK, thats 100 leads that need to be followed, i dont think any police force has that kind of spare man power, especially for just a (what appears to be) mundane auto theft
now what may work is if you got a fancy facial recognition software plugged into a photo driver license database, unfortunately the UK hasn't been very proactive in ensuring their population opt into the photo driver license system, in reality seeing as it's a pretty decent picture of the dude it's alot easier to release this into the public domain and ask if anyone knows of the guy who looks like him and owes or driven a car that looks like the one in the picture, the majority of crimes are solved this way
The thief is somewhat stupid just sitting there as the Google car drove by. I would've turned around or at least hid my face.