By Carlos Miller
Here’s a warning to the roving photographers of Google Maps: Police in Wellesley, Massachusetts are advising residents to contact them when people happen to photograph their house before driving away.
From the Wellesley Police Log, which was compiled by a local newspaper:
On April 14 at 3:30 p.m., a Cedar Terrace resident reported an unknown man took photos of his house. The resident said he was sitting at home when he noticed a car pull into the driveway. A man then got out of the car and took some photos of the house. The photographer waved and smiled at the resident when he came out. The resident was advised to call the police if the man returns.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 Catinthewall // Apr 24, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Hey, I come here for your opinions, not just copypasta!
2 diomedesxx // Apr 24, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Something as mundane as someone being quirky and they call the police on them?
When I had to run away from Hurricane Katrina, I stayed with some friend’s relatives in Austin, and they had some pretty nice houses and interesting architecture (compared to the backwater ~8,000 population town I’m from). I took a few pictures from the street; naturally, people asked what I was doing, but it wasn’t hard to explain.
Certainly, that isn’t something you see every day, but it isn’t even remotely difficult to find out who a vehicle is registered to, and then contact the person to find out what the heck they were doing. If someone is idiotic enough to pull up on my property, I’m going to personally say hello, not call the police first off.
3 Carlos Miller // Apr 25, 2009 at 1:18 AM
The last thing I would do is call the cops because down here, they hardly come when you actually need them, much less when you don’t need them, as in this case.
However, if somebody did that to my house, I would grab my camera and be ready in case they try it again. Just for kicks.
If they don’t come back, then I figure my house or myself might show up on Flickr or something, for whatever reason.
But I would just laugh it off and probably end up not ever seeing the photo.
4 Simon Jester // Apr 25, 2009 at 3:45 AM
I think it would be hilarious if people started to call the cops for every suspicious person who came through the neighborhood. Especially the smiling ones. I mean, I’d finally get to be able to sleep in Saturday mornings when the Jehovah’s Witnesses where driven underground…
5 the lone white boy // Apr 25, 2009 at 8:09 AM
I remember reading an article a while back about car thieves who would take pics a car …. and then come back later to steal it. Seems they were taking pics to show to people who wanted a particular kind of car. Once approved … the thieves would come back & steal the car.
Not saying this is exactly the case here, but you never know.
6 Gabriel // Apr 25, 2009 at 10:54 AM
I work for a real estate appraisal company and we rarely have issues taking pictures of homes. For every appraisal you need to take pictures of comparable sales, it happens thousands of times a day, relax.
7 Alan // Apr 25, 2009 at 11:36 AM
In addition, there’s been prep work for the US Census going on recently. I don’t know if it involves photographing houses, but I did ask one person who was checking out the houses in my area (from his car, not up close) what he was doing. They’re doing some level of pre-checking to verify addresses and get some idea for the size/bedrooms/etc. of addresses.
8 galvarez // Apr 25, 2009 at 12:51 PM
A picture of my house, big deal, but
…a car pull into the driveway.
This is trespass, no?
9 elizabeth // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:44 PM
I work for mortgage companies too, and I take pictures of peoples homes every day. Common sense tells you that you don’t pull into a driveway though! I pull over to the side of the road, roll down my window and shoot. And let me tell you – I have had plenty of homeowners yell and threaten me ! If I am yelled at, I will probably wave back to them too.
Have these people not seen google maps yet ? Type in an address and you can see a photo of your house, there is no law against take a picture.
10 mark // Sep 22, 2009 at 12:59 AM
When I was dispatching, we used to get many such calls, usually when it was good photography weather. Every one we were able to find turned out to be a real estate agent. We stopped taking such calls.
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