Google Street View photographed what appeared to be a dead girl, lying on the pavement in Middle Road, St John’s, Worcester.
Alarmed residents contacted the police after seeing the ‘dead’ girl sprawled on the ground in Google Street View, thinking that a crime had gone undetected. Strangely, Google did not pick up on the picture.
All is well, however, as the ‘dead’ girl is alive and well.
Ten-year-old Azura Beebeejaun told The Telegraph: ”I didn’t know anything about the Google Street View car. I fell over while I was playing with my friend and thought it would be funny to play dead.
”I heard a car go past me but had no idea I was having my picture taken, I was just playing a joke on my friend.”
An anonymous resident told the paper she was shocked by Google’s lack of reaction over the ‘dead’ girl on Street View, saying:
”When we heard about the Street View images we had a look at our street and thought it was really cool.
”It might have been a joke but lots of people were very worried.
”When you see a young girl face-down on the pavement you wonder what on earth has happened to her.
”The worrying thing is that Google didn’t tell the police about the picture, after all they had no idea it was a prank.”
Google responded: ”The imagery in Street View represents a snapshot in time of Britain’s streets and is no different to what anyone might expect to see for themselves around the country.
”Sometimes that means our cars inadvertently capture odd or inappropriate moments as they drive past.
”This is why we have put in place tools so that if people see what they believe to be inappropriate, they can report them to us using the simple reporting tool and the images will be quickly removed or further blurring applied.”
The ‘dead’ girl isn’t the first odd thing that Google Street View has picked up on. A boy wearing a horse’s head and a woman flashing also became Street View celebs.
