'Corpse' Is Just Latest Weird Sight on Google Street View

LONDON (Aug. 12) -- An apparently unconscious young girl lies face down on a sidewalk, her pink flip-flops knocked into the gutter. That disturbing scene was caught on camera last summer by a Google Street View car as it surveyed a quiet residential road in the central English town of Worcester. And when the picture was loaded on to the Internet earlier this year, worried residents contacted the search giant and newspapers, attempting to find out if it was evidence of a murder or hit-and-run accident.

Google Street View

Google Street View of Middle Road in Worcester, England, shows a girl lying face down on the side of the road. The image stirred up some commotion in the town, but it turns out that 10-year-old Azura Beebeejaun was just playing dead.

But the girl wasn't the victim of an unknown crime; in fact she was simply caught playing a prank on one of her friends. "I didn't know anything about the Google Street View car," Azura Beebeejaun, now 10, told the Daily Mail. "I fell over while I was playing with my friend and thought it would be funny to play dead. I'm quite chuffed I'm on the Internet. It is quite funny and I can't wait to tell my classmates when I go back to school."

Azura's mother, Saira, said she was shocked by the fuss the photo had generated. "A couple of people on the road mentioned to me a few weeks ago that they had seen a picture of a girl lying on the floor on our street," the 43-year-old youth worker said. "I assumed it was my daughter because she is always playing around on the pavement. ... I never really thought one picture would cause such a commotion." Jokingly, she added, "I wish she was that quiet all the time."

Google told local newspaper the Worcester News that it couldn't comment on any individual image, but said that its vehicles -- which take pictures with roof-mounted cameras -- sometimes "inadvertently capture odd or inappropriate moments as they drive past."

And the company's camera cars have caught plenty of bizarre goings-on since they started taking panoramic photos of towns and cities in 2007. Here's a rundown of the weirdest street scenes snapped by Google.

The Horse Boy
A man wearing a brown and white horse-head mask, fetchingly offset with a purple sweater, became an instant Internet sensation after Street View snapped him standing in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. The reverse centaur was soon spotted elsewhere, cycling through an English suburb and even rocking out at a German music festival.

The Duel
Could a Viking slay a samurai? Two heavily costumed role players were attempting to resolve that quandary when a Google car cruised past their mock sword fight on the corner of Pittsburgh's Samsonia Way. The 2008 showdown was part of a citywide scene created by two artists, who also installed a marching band and firemen rescuing a toy cat from a tree on Street View's route.

The Man In White
Who is this mysterious figure, swaddled in white and seated on the corner of Paris' Villa Poissonniere and Rue Polonceau? We think he bears a striking resemblance to the bandage- and sunglasses-bedecked Invisible Man featured in the 1933 movie adaptation of H.G. Wells' creepy classic.

The Man in Red and White
It's a question that's echoed down the ages: Where's Waldo? Well, for a while he was standing outside of a cell phone store on London's Putney High Street, according to Street View. Sadly, Google pulled the shot awhile ago, although if you check up and down the road, you can still catch a distant glimpse of Waldo's signature striped jumper.