A word or two of caution

[myshell]

Hi all.

 

A word or two of caution to anyone like me who has their motor home parked on their drive. Earlier this year whilst I was away on holiday there was an attempted burglary at my home, fortunately for me the house is alarmed and my neighbours knew I was away for 6 weeks and where therefore keeping an eye on it for me, when they heard the alarm going off and came to investigate they disturbed someone in the back garden and while one gave chase the other rang the local village police, the young scrotum was duly arrested and when questioned by the police said he knew no one was home because he had seen my motor home parked in my drive on GOOGLE EARTH, and when he was walking past my home a couple of nights previously he noticed the van was not there, he had even checked on Google Earth to find an escape route out of my garden and back onto the main road, fortunately he was disturbed before he could steal anything and the only damage he caused was to the patio door lock.

When I returned from Italy and was informed of all this I contacted GOOGLE EARTH and asked them to remove the images of my home from both their satellite and street view maps, all they would say is that they would "look into it " I have heard nothing from them since.

Now comes the disturbing part of the saga, my grandson has just got an Apple I phone for his birthday and he could not wait to show me what he could do with all the programs on it, it even has GPS tracking on it and he can walk down the lane where I live and it shows him exactly where he is and it has a very clear image of my home including house number, name of the lane and my motor home parked on the drive, photos courtesy of GOOGLE EARTH, I would therefore advise everyone to check the images of their own homes and if they suspect that their security is being compromised, then contact Google and complain and possibly if enough people do so then Google may just do something about it rather than just "Look into it "

 

Regards

Phil.

 

[Bolly1965]

All Google Streetview pics are at least 2 years old. You could have sold the motorhome or moved in that time. There's so much scaremongering about google earth and steetview. If you're not happy you can contact Google to have images related to you removed. - but that may only make people think you are hiding something

[sshortcircuit]

Satellite view of my home is about 12years old and street view about 2years, so a lot of un-necessary scaremongering. If they want in they will get in and I at least have CCTV coverage

[woody.]

Actually the van shown on my drive hasnt been there for three years or more , so god only knows the age of the photo .

[Guest Tracker]

The GE picture of my son's house in Cheltenham shows not only the house and number but also him and his car and reg no. Good job he moved soon after!

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Sorry to hear of your experience,but I too think this is a non issue, after all anyone physically driving / walking down your road gets the same view and a bang up to date one, not one like ours that shows a van I sold two years ago. If someone's wants to nick your van or burgle your home it was happening long before street view.

[Brock]

Myshell has a point. I doubt the miscreant had enough sense to realise how old the satellite pictures could be. After all, he wasn't sensible enough to burgle a house and get away with it even in these modern times of policing.

 

However, most thieves are opportunists and there is a greater risk of them walking buy and seeing nothing on the drive and an invitation to enter, such as an open window. I have removed bushes and a high fence that shielded my property and so my 4 neighbours opposite, if they are in, should be able to see any unusual activity. That said, I know of one case where a van drove up to a house, the occupants forced entry, and loaded several high value items into it before driving off. The neighbours watched thinking it was all above board!

 

I take on board myshell's warning to be on my guard. It's good to have a periodic reminder of the importance of security because we can all become lax over time.

[Guest pelmetman]

One of the reasons we have always made sure we buy a house with a large enough garage to take the camper.

Sue

[Guest Tracker]

Google Earth on a mobile device is a great local navigation tool and can be used by any miscreant to plan a crime and escape routes and I think that there very much is an issue here as every penniless toerag seems to have a smartphone.

 

I also think that there is bu##er all we can do about G E except use the same pictorial info to highlight any weak spots about our own properties and take steps to strengthen them - information works both ways!

[Colin Leake]

We have had ours successfully removed but they don't contact you to say they have done it so the only way you will know is to look for yourself. Ours took about three weeks. The only slight problem is that they obviously can't simply make it disappear so they place a grey patch over it meaning that whilst it may no longer be visible it is still quite obvious that you had something of interest on you drive like a motorhome, caravan or boat.

 

Just as an aside a friend of our who lives near by had his cabin cruiser stolen from his drive in broad daylight and his neighbours even had a chat to the thieves assuming that they were taking it away to have some work done on it!

[Tony Jones]

Google Earth shows the red roof of "Hannibal" (sold 2007) on my drive, and we must have been away when the Street View car came round, as it only shows my old Mini (sold 2010), no van at all. So I'm OK, but it still seems a valid security issue for many.