And you thought parallel parking was stressful.
Police were called to Brae Burn Country Club in Newton, Massachusetts the morning of June 2 after a club employee discovered a black SUV teetering on the edge of the golf course's sixth hole at 5 a.m. When the police arrived, they found a man behind the wheel. His excuse? He had been misled by the popular navigation app Waze, according to WHDH.
Like its rivals Apple Maps and Google Maps, Waze is a digital tool that is designed to escort you from point A to point B. Its standout feature is its ability to incorporate information about traffic, roadwork, car accidents, and police sightings into its recommended route. Until October 2019, that is.
The driver, whose name was not disclosed, told the officers that he had dropped several friends off around 2 a.m. before beginning to make his way back to his own home, according to WCVB. By that time, however, it was pitch black outside, making it difficult to see. He only ended up in the hole after bypassing a gate and a "No Trespassing" sign.
"I think the moral of the story is, if you're using one of these GPS apps, just keep your eyes on the road, your eyes won't lie to you," Newton Police Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker said, according to CBS 58. "I think if you saw that you were headed down some sort of road and it looked like it wasn't going to go anywhere, that you would stop and turn around."
While speaking with the driver, officers noted that he did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs because his speech was not slurred, his eyes were not red, and he did not smell like wine or spirits, according to WCVB. Thankfully, the SUV did not cause any harm to the club grounds.
"Fortunately there was no damage to the golf course," Apotheker said, according to NBC 12. "There's no damage to the vehicle and, more importantly, the operator of the vehicle wasn't injured."
Police escorted the driver off the course and called a tow truck to haul his SUV out of the hole. They do not plan to press any charges, according to WHDH.
Worse incidents have occurred as a result of navigation errors. In 2018, a Palestinian refugee was shot and killed and several others were injured after Israeli forces attempted to rescue two soldiers who had mistakenly navigated to the Qalandia refugee camp.
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