Authorities in Canada have been reluctant to embrace Google’s street-view cameras, out of concern over privacy rights violations. But law enforcement in Vancouver was aided last year by the cameras when one of them captured a property owner illegally chopping down trees to bolster a real estate sale.
Margaret Burnyeat wanted to sell three plots of land she owned for $1.6 million. To entice buyers, she advertised that there were no big trees on the land, and hired a tree-trimming company to remove 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees. But she only obtained city permits to cut down two trees.
The unlawful removal just happened to be captured by a passing car carrying one of Google’s Street View cameras whose images are used for the company’s online mapping tool.
Burnyeat faces fines ranging from $500 to $20,000 for each tree she had cut down illegally.
-Noel Brinkerhoff