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Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Okay Britons, here’s your shot at ripping us Americans who’ve had quite a few laughs at the expense of your GPS-loving neighbors. Reportedly, the driver of a charter bus carrying a high school girls’ softball team decided to casually follow the soothing turn-by-turn directions that were being emitted from the nearby GPS unit rather than actually noticing the enormous clearance sign on the overpass ahead. As you can likely guess, the 11-foot, 8-inch-high vehicle plowed right into the 9-foot bridge — which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 — though somehow everyone on board escaped without any major injuries. Oddly enough, the driver apparently isn’t alone in chipping away at the landmark, as a local even mentioned that “large trucks hit the bridge every two weeks or so,” but couldn’t resist noting that “this [instance was] by far the worst.”

[Thanks, Raleigh]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: GPS, Transportation

At first glance, we seriously assumed that we had mentioned this exact same story before. Turns out, one particular Maxi Haulage driver doesn’t tune into Engadget, as he pulled the exact same trick in (almost) the same circumstances. Reportedly, this timber haul was cut short as the driver followed his personal GPS system down a “farm lane” suitable only for (presumably small) tractors, and needless to say, the 45-foot vehicle has been wedged ever since. Additionally, the owner of the property is quite irate, as the mishap is forcing her to drive an extra two miles until rescue arrives. Still, the motorist did cruise right by a sign noting that the upcoming road was unfit for heavy goods vehicles, so at least the sat nav can’t take all of the blame this go ’round.

[Thanks, Carl H.]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: GPS

Granted, crooks who aren’t up to speed on their technology have paid dearly (and rightfully so) for their ignorance, but a comical case involving a witty bank robber proved that even master plans involving GPS can be subverted. Reportedly, a woman who made off with an undisclosed amount of cash from a People’s Bank in Connecticut somehow realized that a tracking device was stuffed within one of the oh-so-valuable bags. Rather than panicking, however, she simply removed the chip, chucked it in the sewer, and went about her day. It wasn’t noted whether the sly criminal was ever brought to justice, but if the fuzz eventually ran her down, it was most certainly done the old fashioned way.

[Via TGDaily, image courtesy of NYJWJ]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Cellphones

It’s no secret that some wily individuals will look high and low for loopholes to escape a wireless contract, but staging your own death in order to bypass a $175 early termination fee is admittedly extreme. Nevertheless, a frustrated and determined Verizon customer decided to do just that after the carrier refused to let him out of his contract. Insistent that a host of dropped calls and “string of defective cellphones” were reason enough to ditch The Network, he went so far as to “fashion a fake death certificate” and convinced a friend to fax it in. Unfortunately, Verizon caught on to the scheme and yet again refused to let Mr. Taylor out, so as you can probably guess, the perturbed ex-customer begrudgingly coughed up the dough, trashed his phone, and hoped that he “sent a definite message about how much people hate being strapped to a cellphone that doesn’t work.”

[Via Pocket-Lint]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Desktops

A 20-year old student in Shanghai’s Yangpu District perished after being “electrocuted by his computer.” Reportedly, the man removed the external case from his desktop to prevent it from overheating in the non-air conditioned room, and when his legs came into contact with the innards, the resulting shock left him deceased. Initial investigations by local police confirmed that he was indeed electrocuted, yet there was no reason given as to why the individual refused to switch on the cooling system.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: GPS

For most of us level-headed citizens, we’d probably straighten up our act if a GPS bracelet was strapped onto us by the boys in blue, but for a certain Southern California parolee, his skewed judgment recently got the best of him. Just months after a pilot program was instituted to hopefully deter ex-gang members from committing more crimes, police were able to easily track down and apprehend a 37-year old who was eventually arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and parole violations. San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson was quoted as saying that “you’d think somebody with a bracelet wouldn’t do anything,” but apparently, there’s more than a few individuals who just don’t mind learning life’s toughest lessons the hard way.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Source: Darren Murph

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