What would you do if you saw a man brandishing a pick-axe handle standing above a lifeless body in a backstreet? Hopefully, you would call the police, as an alarmed member of the public did after seeing this scene on Google Street View.

The camera car recorded the disturbing scene from different angles as it travelled down Giles Street in Leith, Edinburgh, showing a man apparently being attacked from a distance and his assailant walking away from the scene. But police who traced the assailant to a car repair shop in the road were relieved to discover it was a well-timed prank by two mechanics.

The “dead” man, Dan Thompson, 56, was the manager of the business and in very good health. He told the Independent how he and Gary Kerr, a 31-year-old mechanic, decided to have some fun when they saw the Street View car approaching in August 2012.

“It was in the spur of the moment,” Mr Thompson said. “It seemed like the obvious thing to do so I threw myself on the ground and Gary grabbed a pick-axe handle from the garage.
“We only had about 20 seconds – it was all we could think of.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/police-solve-axe-murder-captured-on-google-street-view-in-edinburgh-9473780.html