June 28, 2007
Joyriding Caught on Google Maps
There's been all kinds of crazy stuff found on Google's new StreetView application, which we wrote about before - guys who appear to be peeing on the side of the road, climbing fences into houses, and so on. While D.C. won't be getting StreetView for a little while longer, there is still some strange stuff to be seen with good ol' Google Maps.
Joyriding has long been a problem in D.C., where (usually) kids steal cars and drive them around before dumping them, but rarely do we actually see it, and ever rarer do we see it from the air. Browsing Google Maps, we spotted this, a car that looks like it was driven all over the baseball diamond at the Douglass Recreation Center in Southeast. When the photo was taken (2005 according to Google Earth, which shows the same image) the center was closed.
In other photos, the car is in different locations around the field. For example, this one from Microsoft's Local Live website, which seems earlier based on the construction, shows a car in deep centerfield, parked on some kind of gravel lot or sandbox, while in this shot, which seems to be the most recent, a car is near the playground. (The Local Live site doesn't work on Firefox, which we're sure is not on purpose).
It's also possible these are different cars altogether. They all look like four door sedans, but one in the earliest image the car looks reddish and appears to have its hood open, while in other shots the car looks yellow or white. The different colors could have come from the time of day the aerial photos were taken, but it's also possible this was the cool spot to ditch cars in 2005. It's too bad these photos are so old, otherwise Google Maps or Local Live could theoretically be more useful in locating stolen cars than D.C.'s crime cameras.
Image from Google Maps
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Local Live has always worked fine for me in Firefox - on both my home and work PCs.
local live works fine for me in firefox too. on an intel mac and a power pc mac.
Are you nuts? First of all, this post is really pointless, I don't even know why I'm bothering to respond. Second, those tracks look too neat to be made by a joy-rider (looks more like crop circles -- maybe aliens have landed there). And that car probably belongs to the grounds keeper or is an abandoned car.
BTW, has anyone noticed that the Naval Observatory is obscured in Google Maps? What the hell is going on there?
"Are you nuts?"
HAHAHA.
I much prefer the Streetview bikini images, but then I'm a sick little monkey.
Only a matter of time before Streetview catches what might be a murder, then we'll all be in Jimmy Stewart's shoes. Or wheelchair, as the case may be.
Just so long as Raymond Burr doesn't come after my ass
while i see your point..its just a teeny bit too big brother for me..
xoxo
The Naval Observatory is obscured because it's the official residence of the Vice President. Can't have the public eavesdropping on the veep's eavesdropping documents. Damn, this whole mess is getting a little too meta for me.
That's weird about Firefox, the site doesn't work for me at home or work.
Seriously, why is the Naval Observatory obscured? The White House is not obscured, and I haven't seen any other place in the world obscured on Google Maps .
John Stewart did a bit on this on last night's Daily Show....showed how it was obscured on Google Earth but clear as day on MapQuest. Maybe the staff member in charge of that is in jail or under charges or something too and forgot to tell the Dickster?
Is it really likely that it was the same car in all those images? I mean, wouldn't someone have found each stolen car there soon after it was ditched? Assuming that's what these are pictures of.
hmph
"...this post is totally pointless..."
Uhhh, it took me a good 5 minutes (give or take a half minute) to read the post, check out the links, read the comments, figure out that my f'ing comment password still won't work, the post this as a guest. That's a good five minutes killed at work and isn't that why blogs were invented in the first place? Mission accomplished.
still doesn't beat this story
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/06/todays-photo-dr.html
from the Wikipedia article on 'One Observatory Circle':
"At the request of the United States government, high-resolution satellite images of One Observatory Circle have been censored from Google Maps; however, high-resolution aerial images are still available from Yahoo Maps as of April 20, 2007."
I was just watching the news (fox) and they showed this picture 'from dcist.com...' and did the story. thought you'd like to know.
That's really interesting about the White House not being obscured, because (I'm sure of it) it used to be. It wasn't pixelated but the roof was painted all the same color. Maybe they got a new source image and forgot?
After doing some research, I found that this aerial photograph was taken in March, 2005 and released to the public in February, 2007. Google is currently using imagery from 2002 and 2005 to show Washington, DC on Google Maps.