4th February 2010, 08:43 PM
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| Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane
Posts: 12,994
|  Google street view catches tree cutters
Talk about bad luck and BUSTED! Google Street View Catches Tree Assassin Red Handed  Quote:
Back in the day, all you needed to break open a court case was some modicum of logical argumentation, and Gregory Peck's voice. Fast forward to 2010. Exit Atticus Finch, and enter Google's Street View.
As Wired reports, Margaret Burnyeat, of Vancouver, Canada, was charged last year with the illegal removal of trees, after allegedly hiring a company to chop down some 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees from her property. Police had found evidence of a few stumps in her front yard, but Burnyeat's goose wasn't cooked until someone happened to take a gander at Google. As it turns out, one of Google's fleet of Street View camera cars happened to pass by Burnyeat's property, and photographed the arboreal assassins in action. Google's images show very clearly defined tree stumps, as well as the workmen and their truck parked in the front yard.
As of now, authorities aren't sure whether or not they'll use the Street View images in their case against Burnyeat, who had only been granted a permit for the removal of 2 trees, not 23. Either way, we don't think her chances of getting off are looking exactly great. Holding your own unlicensed arbicide may not be as societally abhorrent as, say, robbery, or even a half-naked Wayne Coyne. But the next time we get the urge to go all Mr. Miyagi on our front yard forest, we'll probably think about the ever watchful eye of Google Maps, and remember just how badly it burned Burnyeat.
| CBC News - British Columbia - Google camera appears to catch illegal tree-cutting   Quote:
Three people have been charged with violating Vancouver's tree-cutting bylaw after trees were illegally removed from a property on the city's West Side – in an incident apparently caught on a camera operated by the internet giant, Google.
The former owner of the property, her daughter and a tree cutter allegedly removed 23 trees after they were issued a city permit in May 2009 to cut down just two.
The cedar, cypress and evergreen trees were cut down on the same day that a car equipped with a camera recording images for Google's Street View was in the neighbourhood around Southwest Marine Drive and Musqueam Park.
The city of Vancouver's legal department was aware of the Google Street View shots, CBC News was told, but no decision has been made about submitting them as evidence against the people charged.
The city said it only learned about the Google pictures after it had begun to investigate the neighbours' complaints.
Property sold
Former homeowner Margaret Burnyeat, her daughter Elizabeth Burnyeat and Michael Saffronick of Saffronick Tree Care Ltd. have been charged, according to city spokeswoman Theresa Beer.
Read more: CBC News - British Columbia - Google camera appears to catch illegal tree-cutting
A new tree-cutting bylaw came into effect Jan. 1. Under the previous bylaw, those found in contravention can be fined between $500 and $20,000 per tree.
The next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 27.
The property at 6060 Olympic St. was sold by the Burnyeats in June 2009 and has since been put up for sale again by new owners with a list price of $1,684,000.
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