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German home-owners who have chosen to opt out of Google's Street View service appear to have become the unsuspecting victims of anti-privacy vandals.

Local media report that homes in Essen, west Germany have been pelted with eggs and had 'Google's cool' notices pinned to their doors.

The properties involved have all chosen to be blurred on Google's Street View service.

The search giant distanced itself from the vandalism.

"We respect people's right to remove their house from Street View and by no means consider this to be acceptable behaviour," a Google spokesperson said.

It said it was a one-off incident.

Street View is rolling out across Germany this month and is proving a hit with users, according to Google.

The German government took a hard line on the service, mandating that citizens be allowed to opt out, before pictures went live.

Almost 250,000 Germans requested that Google blur pictures of their homes on the service.

Since going live in Germany, the service has captured a series of bizarre events, including a naked man climbing into the boot of his car on the driveway of a house in Mannheim, south-west Germany.

Another camera appeared to capture the birth of a baby on a street in a Berlin suburb, although there are question-marks over the veracity of the incident.