Google Street View Has Accidentally Captured Some Amazing Photos
Updated April 7 2021, 3:22 p.m. ET
Google Street view is an amazing tool for revisiting past addresses, scoping out an area before a vacation, or just trying to get a better understanding of a neighborhood you may or may not be moving into.
It's also a treasure trove of accidentally amazing photos, each one with their own stories behind them.
Like this one woman who accidentally stumbled upon a picture of her dearly departed mother.
Denise Underhill, from Florida, was taking a trip down memory lane and looked up her old neighborhood on Google Street View. What she saw shocked her and left her feeling all kinds of emotional: a photo that one of the Mountain View tech giant's street cars happened to take of her mother while it was driving past her home.
What prompted Underhill to look up her old home on Google is where the story gets pretty freaky: She was feeling super nostalgic and thinking about her mother that day. So she decided to take a peak at her old house and was presented with a candid image of her mom watering her plants.
"You never know what photos are being taken, but they do last a lifetime," Underhill told Digital Trends.
A touching story, especially considering how much Underhill misses her mother. It sounds like seeing her pop up unexpectedly in Google's cameras made her day.
But there are accidental Google Street View captures that are definitely on the more light-hearted side.
Like this time one of their cars caught a classic saran-wrap-around-the-car prank in action.
Or this dude who isn't a fan of getting his picture taken, or navigation software in general, it seems.
There's this amazing photo that defies explanation.
And this person who likes to show off for the camera. Good thing they're wearing a helmet.
Hiccups in Google's 360 camera technology can lead to some hilarious results, too, like this snowmobile-centaur.
Or this 'Abbey Road'/'Multiplicity' mashup.
Ghost-head beach boy is another unfortunate casualty of Google's weird image captures.
There's this haunting image of a fading skaterboy who got trapped in pavement. Legend says you can hear his cries for help till this day.
There's angry scuba-divers who don't want you coming into their neighborhood.
This person casually strolling down the street in their horse-head mask.
The old-timey cyclist, dressed for the Tour de France, hitching a stuffed penguin behind them.
This ET/Predator hybrid standing guard over a sweet mountain bike.
Nothing to see here. Just LARPERS LARPING.
I swear to God, Brooklyn gets weirder and weirder every single day.
I'd like to know what they're feeding the pigeons in this neighborhood. I'd also like them to stop.
So this is what SWAT team members do before a raid.
I don't know what's worse, the name of the store or the fact that this guy is mooning the car.
Definitely the clown, I mean, why would you define a clown as "fecund" anyway? It's so gross.