How a fake Aldi store on Google Maps led shoppers to the middle of the countryside
Shoppers and a delivery driver have been left short-changed after they headed to a phantom Aldi store deep in the countryside.
The driver of a large milk tanker that became stranded was among the victims deceived by the ‘pin’ in rural north Wales.
An ‘endless stream’ of holidaymakers were driving along the lane ‘looking confused’, according to one local resident.
What appeared on Google Maps to be a branch of the budget retailer is in fact a remote farm located on narrow country roads near Cyffylliog, a few miles west of Ruthin in Denbighshire.
A rogue location pin is to blame for the sat nav fails.
Believed to have been created as a ‘joke’, the digital marker has been removed after the tanker mishap.
One local who had been trying to banish the phantom store for some time said: ‘I know a few people who have made the same mistake.’
While car drivers using the fake co-ordinates were able to move on, the winding lane was too much of a challenge for the Muller milk lorry, according to North Wales Live. Local residents were warned the road to Hiraethog could be blocked for several hours after the mishap.
One who went to help said on social media: ‘Poor fella tried pulling up Allt Henblas and backing the trailer up our hill in a misguided attempt at turning around. Went down with a tractor but the fella had no idea where the towing eye was, so I left it to the experts.
‘They straightened him out to go to Hiraethog to turn around.
‘As he was rounding the corner at the bottom of the hill, he slowed down to open his window and thank us – and nearly got stuck again.
‘Bless his cotton socks.’
A local prankster was to blame for the fake icon, according to the farmer.
‘Now we have an endless stream of day trippers and holidaymakers turning up and looking confused,’ he said. ‘This was our first actual Aldi delivery!’
The fake pin has since been removed.
Google Maps has proved a source of misleading location info before.
In 2014, the Tube station icons dotted around London were replaced with New York Metro symbols.
On that occasion, a technical glitch was to blame, with the search engine quipping: ‘There are currently engineering works on the Google Line.
‘Normal services will be resumed shortly.’
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