A series of 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees were illegally removed from a Vancouver woman’s former home. Margaret Burnyeat, listed as the property owner up til June 24th, 2009, her daughter and Michael Safronick (of Michael Safronick Tree Care Limited) have been charged with violating an old tree bylaw. Although Burnyeat received a permit to remove two trees back in May, penalties in excess of the two permitted trees will run her anywhere between CA$500 and CA$20,000 (approximately $468 to $18,715). So, how did Google help the Canadian city fight this crime?
Well, it was actually just an unintentional coincidence. The city was notified of the offense by several neighbors and a competing tree removal company. But, Google was able to provide them with photographic evidence of the crime. It just so happened that big brother, I mean, a Google Street Views vehicle was driving by and mapping the area. The Google camera caught a couple of work vehicles parked near the house where a stunned-looking workmen stand next to a line of stumps. City official Theresa Beer notes that although the city’s legal department is aware of what Big Brother Google has captured, “how they will use that as evidence, I’m not clear.”
Sorry, I know… a string of robberies or murders would have been more gripping than a mass axing of trees. But hey, the listing for the house states, “no big trees.” That makes it a premeditated murder, uh, crime, right?
1 comment
Annie Bee says:
July 2, 2010 at 11:30 am (UTC -7 )
So what finally happened to these three people? Were they fined the appropriate amount? It’s July and I can’t find anything regarding the outcome.