Google Maps mistake leads to the wrong house being torn down by demolishers

We’ve all suffered from Google Maps errors: aimlessly walking around the point on the map the app has directed you to only to find the address is not there. Well, one unlucky home owner in Texas has got us all beat: her tornado-damaged house – which was scheduled for repair – accidentally got torn down when the demolition team got the real house’s location mixed up. All thanks to Google Maps.

The mistake seems innocent enough: the house scheduled for demolition was at 7601 Cousteau Drive in Rowlett, Texas. The house scheduled for repair was 7601 Calypso Drive, just down the street and right on the corner of Cousteau Drive and Calypso Drive. The bumbling demolition team apparently never thought they should double check the address before bringing in the wrecking ball.

When the owner was informed about the mistake, she contacted the demolition company to find out what had happened. She was allegedly sent a screenshot from Google Maps as a kind of bizarre justification for the accidental demolition. Because I’m sure that made everything better.

Google has reportedly fixed the problem, but as you can see in the screen grab at the top of this article, the address at the lower center of the screen still shows up as 7601 Cousteau Drive even though the pinned location a little north of it is the real 7601 Cousteau Drive (if you search for 7601 Calypso Drive it shows up in the right place now though). Both Apple Maps and Mapquest have the right address for the now-demolished house.

Can you believe this happened? How much do you rely on Google Maps data?

While this may make some of us chuckle, this is pretty appalling. The owner had received a permit to repair and rebuild, but now, instead of picking up the pieces she’s going to be starting from scratch. The demolition company hasn’t even apologized for the mistake yet.

So consider yourself lucky the next time Google Maps take you to the wrong destination and perhaps we should all reconsider how much faith we put in crowd-sourced information on the internet, even when it has Google’s name on it.

Can you believe this happened? How much do you rely on Google Maps data?