Demolition team tears down wrong house, blames Google Maps
It happens to all of us: You check an address on Google Maps, and arrive at the place only to realize you're five city blocks away from the actual location.
But when you're a part of the demolition team sent to tear down a tornado-damaged house, you should definitely doublecheck the address before swinging that wrecking ball.
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According to a report by WFAA, the Billy L. Nabors Demolition company, based in Seagoville, Texas, made the unfortunate mistake of tearing down a home at 7601 and 7603 Calypso Drive in Rowlett, Texas, when instead it was supposed to demolish a house at 7601 Cousteau Drive, one block away.
The devastated home owners, who were in the process of deciding whether they'll repair or rebuild their house, contacted the demolition company, but initially received no apology, according to the report. Instead, a Nabors employee sent them a screenshot, via a text message, showing that the Google Maps arrow for 7601 Cousteau points at their home.
At the time of this writing, the error was still visible on Google Maps, with both addresses pointing to the same location, as seen in the screenshot below.
Nabors CEO George Gomez later said the mistake was "not a big deal."
"The homeowners were in the process of trying to figure out what it was going to take to repair their home and now they're looking at rebuilding it instead. I think this is a very big deal," city manager Brian Funderburk said.
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Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
