Google's "do no evil" motto fails to halt heartless bandits
Posted 01.08.2010 at 5:30 pm
11 Comments
Solar-Powered Vineyards "Just leave me in peace to tend to my wine"
Langetwins Winery and Vineyards
Hot on the heels of news about Google's new energy venture comes this sorrowful tale about renewable energy. NPR reports on enterprising thieves who used Google Earth to do evil, and specifically to find California wineries with solar panels for the taking.
Yes, even the criminal underworld has embraced clean tech in the 21st century. Many thieves have reportedly used trucks to simply crash winery gates and steal up to 70 panels at a time. Local sheriff deputies speculate that online tools such as Google Earth might make it particularly easy to locate possible targets -- more than 400 panels worth over $1,000 each were stolen from Napa Valley vineyards in 2009.
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Technology, Jeremy Hsu, bandits, bottles, google earth, napa valley, renewable energy, solar panels, thieves, wine, wineriesOne winery played the victim three times in one year after installing a $1.2 million array, but managed to nab the thieves the third time after installing an alarm system to back up a chain-link fence and two dogs. Now a Congressman has included a provision in the Technology Roadmap Act that would create a national registry to better track solar panel serial numbers.
Mr. Burns of The Simpsons would undoubtedly raise a glass in toast to these creative thieves, just before raising his sun-blocking energy device to the skies. But perhaps plundered wineries can take a tip from one of our past stories, and use their bad bottles of wine to create electricity and hydrogen.
[via NPR]
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just leave a couple of bottles out for the thieves to part take from
So these wineries are installing tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment with no security?
They had security -- or so it seems. The one company finally nabbed thieves the 3rd time when they added an alarm system to the dogs and chain link fence setup.
Solar panels would seem to be a pretty new target. Ever resourcedul thieves are cashing in on the latest trends.
I love Google Earth, but I often wonder about it. A large part of 'casing the joint' can now often be accomplished online. I expect legal challenges to the Google picture takers in the future.
casing the joint isnt just knowing the layout.
They stole my idea... woops.
lol jk smart robbers dumb company security fail
So this is the reason goggle earth sent my computer a virus
to try and shut their program down. I wouldn't know where
a winery was at any way. Goggle earth you suck. And I wish you to hell. And if you ever try to ruin my system again.
I will sue you out of existence.
umm lol or maybe it was that antivirus 2009 program you downloaded... aka the worst virus ever....p.s. try linux no viruses.
the chance of google earth giving you a virus is about .000000001% as all the computers in my school have it installed on them and all of them work fun...most of the time and 2nd why would google put a virus on your computer and stop you from using their product... seems very umm economically smart...(sarcasm)
also good luck sueing a multi billion dollar company with no evidence...and getting all their money...lol
I would think this would fall under organized crime. It's not like you can just sell 400 panels to anyone, you have to have a buyer before you steal all that or at least a large place to store all of them. It would also take an organized team of people with knowlege and experience in the field of solar to remove and handle all of them for a one night stealing spree.
Other than some wire snips and a few gator-grip style ratchets to take care of whatever bolts they encountered what knowledge of solar products would they need? Just don’t break the glass and cells, external wiring can always be replaced. I wonder if they moved them in groups of 4 like they're assembled in the photo or panel by panel. I don't know how much these panels weigh.
from coral gables, fl
Unbelievable. A chain link fence protects a $1.2 million array? These fools deserved it.