German homes egged by Street View vandals

by Steven Mostyn - Nov 25 2010, 06:26

Houses in Germany have been pelted with eggs this week after residents refused to have their homes shown via Google's interactive Street View mapping service.

According to German media sources, the eggy assaults took place in Bergerhausen, a suburb of Essen, and are believed to have been carried out by fans of Street View—not least because “Google's cool” notices were left attached to the mailboxes of certain targeted homes. 

“We'll see if there were witnesses,” a spokesman for Essen police told Deutsche Welle regarding the attacks, “We don't have any leads pointing to a perpetrator.”

Clearly showing themselves to be somewhat less liberal than the rest of Europe might have thought, three percent of Germans have chosen to opt out of having their properties clearly displayed by Google's service.

Interestingly, Google's offices in the German city of Munich have been blurred from view after a private resident within the same building lodged a complaint.

Google spokeswoman Lena Wagner has insisted that the online search giant is in no way connected to the egg attacks and does not condone such acts of vandalism.   

Recently launched across Germany, the fleet of Street View camera cars have already caused something of a stir after capturing a mysterious naked man clambering into the trunk of his car, and even a woman giving birth by the roadside.

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