GpsError
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GPS coordinates lead demolition crew to destroy wrong house
Tired of blaming GPS on petty mishaps like the destruction of cars, a demolition crew in Georgia has managed to accidentally destroy an entirely wrong house based on GPS coordinates. Oddly enough, it wasn't even the first time they'd been by: the man who cuts the grass noticed that the power box was missing from the home and holes were punched into the walls about a month ago -- it was suspected as vandalism, but it now seems that the stealthy, directionless demolition company was to blame. The demolition company says it had "paperwork" authorizing the destruction, complete with the coordinates and a description of the home, which the owner's father had built with his own hands "brick by brick."[Thanks, Leonard]
200 miles later, ambulance crew learns to be skeptical of GPS
As much as we like playing with GPS devices and using them on the road, there's no substitute for good ol' fashioned maps (not to mention, um, common sense) for navigating unfamiliar territory. An ambulance crew attempting to transfer a patient from a hospital from London (King George Hospital) to another in Brentwood -- a mere 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) to the northeast -- ended up blindly following their nav unit, which somehow guided them 200 miles to the northwest, all the way to the outskirts of Manchester. Eight hours after setting out on their journey, the ambulance finally made it to the appropriate destination (Mascalls Park Hospital) -- luckily for them, according to United Press International, the "patient's health was not jeopardized" and "the drivers have been told to study their geography and learn to think for themselves." What a novel concept.[Via UPI, thanks Dan]
