What’s Going On Here?
Wednesday, 12th May 2010 by Chris Hannigan
Question: What would a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) car be doing in Croydon, UK with a man fixed on its roof and a giant hand spanking him on the rear? Getting on Google Sightseeing of course!
According to GSS reader James Martin, this insane tableau is the brainchild of a man who was denied permission to install a pond in his garden by the local council. So, obviously, he went out and put a guy in the ready position on the roof of a foreign police car. Way to lash out friend!1
I wonder what his neighbours think? Better yet, where exactly did he think this pond would go?
Although Google blurred out most of the car's distinguishing details, you can still see the car has LAPD markings (whether real or not nobody knows), and a website address on the back. Unfortunately, the website is no longer online so my attempts at picking up some more information this way were quickly, well, pummelled?2
Wouldn't it be great if the hand slaps Mr. White Shirt across the rear every time the driver puts on the brakes?
Thanks again to James Martin for sending us the link!
About the author
Chris is on twitter! @djtripp20
Looks to me like he’s gotten his CHiPs mixed up with his LAPD.
This was the same ‘wacky’ ‘character’ who went on holiday, caught a giant marlin and was so proud he came back to Croydon and stuck a giant fiberglass marlin to his roof. His neighbours liked it – one even bought a sign for their house ‘Shark View’ – but the council told him to take it down.
His response was to buy a military surplus tank and drive it round, very slowly. He painted it it a few different colours and it was parked on my road in Brixton for a while, with giant paper mache pigs in full police uniforms perched on the back.
Used to think it was pretty cool, but in retrospect he’s probably a bit of a twat.
It might not be an authentic LAPD car, but it is definitely not from the UK. If you zoom in closely you can see that the steering wheel is on the left side of the car. While there’s no telling for sure, let’s just hold on to the illusion that he bought an actual LAPD squad car at auction!
The marlin is still there in these pics–look on top of the garage behind the police car.
Great eye! Don’t know how I missed that!
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=51.413314,-0.107068&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.41348,-0.107186&cbp=12,116.53,,2,-9.06
Well spotted! I always assumed he had taken it down.
Worth pointing out that the man having his arse smacked is actually a policeman, judging by his, er… helmet.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=51.413314,-0.107068&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.41348,-0.107186&cbp=12,101.44,,2,0.27
Is it just me or does he resemble the guy from “A Clockwork Orange” in the last picture? 🙂
In the overhead view, he seems to have something else on top of the police car. At least I can’t reconcile the streetview and overhead images. You can see a bright blur that is the marlin on the roof, too.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.41344,-0.10704&z=21
It’s about an owner of a pub nearby who had problems with the autorities about parking at his pub. Here is the story.
http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/214165.pub_manager_goes_nuts_over_parking_dispute/
Furthermore 1/3 down the site: http://freebornjohn.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Another vue of the police car: http://www.urban75.org/brixton/photos/63.html
Spanking action would make it pretty special I agree. Looks more paper mache than robotic though
Not much, but this is the website, as archived in July 2001… http://web.archive.org/web/20010722203502/http://www.copbusters.co.uk/