Amazing Shots Captured by Google Street View

From allegedly cheating husbands, to drug deals in action, to embarrassing moments, Google Street View has captured some interesting snapshots of human life. Artist Jon Rafman, has made it his goal to scour the Earth and compile those fascinating images. This list of 30, seen at Demilked, is full of truly amazing shots. And there are more at is his website.

You can see everything from a tiger wandering about a parking lot:

To a seemingly escaped prisoner:

To a street gang stopping cars on the road:

To a child hiding behind a garbage pail:

To a reindeer fleeing the oncoming car:

Rafman calls his project 9-eyes, after the nine cameras that each Google Streetview car has mounted on top. He has blurred out the faces of people who appear in the photographs. (Street View has been caught in a debate about privacy since it launched.) The images show people of all walks of life, doing all sorts of things — some mundane, others extreme. From a group of young men lined up against a wall by the police, to prostitutes waiting on corners, to small children wielding guns. This is the world we live in, as seen by a car simply driving by.

Update: If it seemed unlikely that a tiger would be wandering around a parking lot…well, it is. Alas, that tiger is not a live tiger but, as a crisper shot reveals, one made of fiberglass.)

More from Smithsonian.com:

Google Street View Trike: Nominate the National Mall

National Mall, a Finalist for a Google Trike Visit

Rose Eveleth | | READ MORE

Rose Eveleth was a writer for Smart News and a producer/designer/ science writer/ animator based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, Story Collider, TED-Ed and OnEarth.