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By Soo Kim
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A bizarre image captured on Google Earth has sparked debate on Threads after a post showing a person walking alongside a bicycle with an unusual bag perched on top went viral.
The image was shared by Threads user @themrs_shari, and has amassed 1.5 million views since it was posted on February 27.
In the caption, the user wrote: “Google Earth blurred the image, but you can still check it out! Open Google Earth, search for Kent St. 44305, and click on Street View you’ll spot this guy in the middle of… whatever it is he’s doing.”
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The screenshot appears to show a man pushing a bike with a large, elongated bag strapped across it. The unclear shape of the object quickly prompted speculation from other users, with some joking that it resembled a body bag.
Reacting to the image, user @gazidisuus commented: “This is why im fat. So no one cant just get rid of my body on their bike.”
Another user, @x.ntlie, wrote: “How unlucky for them! Camera has not visited the area in 15 years and happen to get caught disposing of a body on the one day it drives around hahaha. Very glad for the victim and relatives but hilarious they got caught in that way.”
Other users pushed back against the darker interpretations. Sharing what they said was another angle of the image, @eastendlass wrote: “It doesn't look quite as body like from the other angle though, does it?”
Meanwhile, user @sleepyaugust.66 suggested a more mundane explanation, commenting: “I'm sorry but that's definitely not a body and likely an unhoused man just carrying his sleeping bag...”
User @bespoeke echoed that view, adding: “Yeah. It just looks like their sleeping bag used as a suitcase to carry all of there belongings.”
Google Earth allows users to explore locations around the world using a combination of satellite imagery, aerial photography, 3D and Street View images. According to Google, the images shown are "collected over time from providers and platforms. Images aren't in real time, so you won't see live changes."
The company explains that "satellite and aerial images in Google Earth are taken by cameras on satellites and aircraft, which collect each image at a specific date and time." Sometimes the images are combined into "a mosaic of images" captured over multiple days or months, and the images are “displayed as one seamless image," Google says.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via Threads and Google via email.
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