Google's Street View camera cars have captured much more than house fronts since they began touring city streets in 2007. Indeed, searching out these roadside aberrations has become a favourite pastime for those with too much time on their hands. And it looks like Street View's recent expansion into Germany has, ahem, delivered what may well be the most bizarre image yet.

The scene lacks nothing in drama. A woman, lying down, her head cradled in what we can only assume is a modern-day Samaritan's lap, while a man – possibly a fan of The Lion King – holds her newborn child aloft. Onlookers, well, look on. One gestures frantically while yelling down his mobile. You can almost hear him: 'Sie hat ein Baby!'

With Christmas fast approaching, it might be a modern-day Nativity scene, were it not for the graffiti and lack of lowing cattle. What it undoubtedly marks is a new high for the web giant's accidental vogue of capturing remarkable events while mapping our streets in a friendly, non-invasive way.

Or could it be that all is not as it seems. Is the scene maybe too dramatic? Could the whole thing be an internet hoax?

A lack of reports of a kerbside birth on Hubertusallee in the Berlin suburb of Wilmersdorf is the first indication that this may be a piece of theatre.

In fact, Germans have responded to the arrival of Street View with a series of such "interventions" – evidence, we think, of a rather well-developed, if time-intensive, sense of humour.

• This article was updated on 30 November 2010 to reflect the printed version.