The Dog That Got Run Over and Other Crazy Google Street View Photos

(Photo: AP Images)

By Caitlin M. Kiernan

Recently, a Google Street View car capturing images in Chile horrifyingly hit and apparently killed a dog. It is not the first time Street View has photographed more than just the streets. Street View cars have logged more than 7 million miles (that equals about 11 round trips to the moon!) to collect images for maps and driving directions, so of course they end up recording many things. In the little Chilean dog’s honor, here some of the craziest, wackiest, scariest views from the street.

Before & after. (Photo: Google)

1. The dog incident: While driving down Meza Bell in Quinta Normal in Chile last week, a Google Street View car ran over a small dog. The pup, which resembled a Chihuahua mix, made a break for the opposite side of the street just as the car was approaching. Long story short, it doesn’t look good for the dog. But Google is investigating.

Just say no. (Photo: Google)

2. If the driving directions thing doesn’t work out, perhaps Street View can fight crime. On Aug. 19, a former drug addict from New Jersey decided to look up his “old dope spot” on Street View. The image? Something that looks suspiciously like a drug deal in progress. He wrote on Reddit: “[I] was not disappointed or surprised.”

Horror movie? No, Google Street View. (Photo: Google)

3. Google Street View cars aren’t just about documenting locations; they also seem to discover new animal species. This picture of a cat with only two legs, a tail, and no ears, taken in Ottawa, Canada, last year, went viral. But images can be deceiving. Apparently, Google’s cameras compress images and then electronically stitch them together to create a panoramic view. In the case of this cat — identified as a Moggy named Thumbelina — they created a freak of nature.

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What are the odds of recording this crazy accident? (Photo: Google)

4. Talk about going off the rails! It just so happened that a Google car was driving on a street in Seattle when two Northwestern Trailways buses skidded on ice down a steep street nearby. The second bus struck the first bus, pushing it through a guardrail, where it hung 20 feet above Interstate 5. Eighty passengers safely escaped through the windows.

Gucci? That baby has good taste. (Photo: Google)

5. Um, that baby is a little young to be shopping alone at Gucci! Google cameras caught a tot crawling on the sidewalk outside the store in Taipei. While the parents were presumed to be hidden from the camera, it doesn’t make the image of the lone infant any less disturbing.

That must have hurt. (Photo: Google)

6. With more than 20,000 miles of streets to photograph, Google Street View cars hit the roads of Denmark with enthusiasm, with the Danish equally excited. While trying to get a picture of a Google Street View car making its debut ride in the country, a man lost control of his bike and did a serious face plant into the pavement. Being a good sport, he has allowed the image to stay on the Street View service.

Nose-picker? Busted! (Photo: Google)

7. It’s bad enough that other people had to witness this man with his finger knuckle-deep in his nose, but to have that caught on film forever seems like, well, justice. The image, which was captured on the Rua Engenheiro Aristides Milton, in Salvador, is now posted in Google’s “fun” folder.

They say it’s good luck when a bird poops on your Google Street View camera. (Photo: Google)

8. What looks like bomb going off was actually an explosion from a bird’s butt. While trolling around the Hollywood Palladium, a bird pooped on one of Google’s nine cameras, creating this epic image.

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She said “yes!” (Photo: Google)

9. Google employee Michael Weiss-Malik proposed to his girlfriend, Leslie, with help from the Street View team. Believing that his first proposal had lacked pizzazz, the self-proclaimed “Silicon Valley geek” gathered some co-workers outside of Google’s Mountain View offices and held up a banner popping the big question all over again. She said yes.

This takes Shark Week to a whole new level. (Photo: Google)

10. No, this isn’t a scene out of “Sharknado“ — it’s actually a famous landmark on New High Street in Oxford, England. The Headington Shark is a 25-foot fiberglass sculpture that was originally embedded in the roof of a home as a statement against nuclear weapons.

That dog does not look disturbed by the weird goings on. (Photo: Google)

11. Kidnapping? Kink? This is definitely a WTF moment. But word on the street is that the questionably naked man emerging from the trunk of a car in Germany was just trying to fix something in the car. The yellow bottle in the driveway suggests some sort of mechanical-related fluid and supports this claim.

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