Yup, same train for me. Came back to this thread just to post it, only to find you two already had.
I recall some "random street view" site a while back having the same behavior. Not sure if it was a different site, or same one is just making the news cycle again.
I believe they have Street View backpacks. Not sure of the specifics, but if I remember correctly you can walk around with the backpack and take pictures of places that cars can't get to and have them added to the map.
They have the Google Street View Trekker program[0] where they have the backpacks similar to the units mounted on their Street View cars. They tend to do "tourist attraction" type areas like monuments, parks, and so forth.
I wonder if this will be the next step for them; mapping all indoor and outdoor locations, integrating relevant ads into the street view of certain stores?
Areas not accessible by car, like pedestrian areas, narrow streets, alleys and ski resorts, are sometimes covered by Google Trikes (tricycles),[2] snowmobiles[3][4] or boats.[5] On each of these vehicles there are nine directional cameras for 360° views at a height of 2.5-3.0 meters (8.2-9.8 feet),[6][7] GPS units for positioning and three laser range scanners from Sick AG for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle.[8] These are used for recording a rough 3D model of the surroundings, enabling faux-3D transitions between distinct panoramas where the environment images are momentarily mapped onto this 3D model while being crossfaded to create an animated perspective change as the user travels from one panorama to another. There are also 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots.[9] More recently, high quality images have been based on open source hardware cameras from Elphel.[10]
It says "sometimes", though, so not sure how the other pics are captured.
http://randomstreetview.com/#rkof5_5zmfd_-av_a_-a