Random Terrifying Google Maps Led People Into Horror Country (13 items)

• (#1) If Y'All Hurt One Of My Dogs I'm Gunna Shoot You

  From Redditor /u/girlingboyer

  Balmorhea, Texas.

  Driving across the country with my girlfriend from NYC. Google Maps takes us off the main road, but I zoom out to double check and it looks like a good shortcut to get where we’re going. The trail gets dustier, and suddenly we’re at an open gate through which the “road” keeps going. I check the map again, and it looks OK, so we enter through. I figure, if the gate is wide open, we’re probably safe.

  Passing a large barn, suddenly about 15 huge dogs come running after us. Real big dogs. Barking, angry dogs. We keep driving as per Google’s instructions but the “road” suddenly ends and there’s a creek that we could in no way cross to keep driving. So, we manage to turn around with these huge dogs surrounding us and slowly drive back the other way. Only when we get back to the gate this time, it’s closed.

  In our rear-view, we see a golf cart sputtering towards us. It’s an old lady. We roll down the window, not long before we hear “Y’all better get the hell out of here NOW!” We try to tell her we’re sorry and explain what happened, but she’s not hearing it. “If y’all hurt one of my dogs, I’m gon SHOOT YOU!”

  My girlfriend is freaking out, but the gate is closed, so the old lady pretty hilariously has to explain to us that it will open automatically if we approach it closer. “It’ll OPEN automatically if you just PULL UP!” So we drive up and it starts to open, but we’re too close to it, and awkwardly back up to let it open all the way before hightailing the F out of there. Never taking the “shortcut” in the middle of nowhere ever again.

  I actually submitted a report to Google about this and never heard back from them.
• (#2) Cue Black Flashing Lights And An SUV Full Of Cop-Type Guys

  From Redditor /u/jrhooo

  The NSA.

  It wasn't so much visiting it, as trying to get somewhere completely else, and the GPS refusing to recognize that the facility was even there, thus refusing to go around it.

  The road it wanted you to take just stuck on the lane that goes to their gate, without a real way to turn off.

  So you get there and the security guy is like, "badge?"

  "Oh, sorry I don't work here. I just got turned around. I am not supposed to be here."

  "Ok, then. You'll just have to turn around and go that way."

  "Yeah, can I just turn around here and drive back out the gate?"

  "You can pull over right here and that security car will escort you back the gate"

  Cue black flashing lights and an SUV full of cop-type guys.
• (#3) Cementland

  From Redditor /u/murraythedog

  Cementland in St. Louis.

  An artist known for creating the town’s renowned City Museum, basically an adult jungle gym in an old downtown office building, tried to outdo himself by turning an abandoned cement factory into the same thing. He did a lot of it himself and died when his bulldozer flipped over.

  The site now has these creepy carnival-style painted concrete domes along the street and giant abandoned machinery behind them.
• (#4) A Scraggily Looking Guy Opened the Door and Waved for Me to Come In

  From Redditor /u/roseblack18

  I once applied for a job at a tanning salon at the next town over. The online ad made it seem really chill and like it would work well with my school hours. They were specifically looking for high school or college girls, so that fit the bill -- plus free tanning or whatever. I sent in my resume and they emailed for me to come to a job interview.

  When I followed Google Maps to the address (there aren't any Street Views of it) it was a dilapidated looking old house. A scraggly looking guy opened the door and waved for me to come in. I noped out of there really fast. 
• (#5) Please Refrain From Feeding The Wild Animals

  From Redditor /u/iholierthanthou

  Okay so this happened during our trip to Goa (India).

  It was our second day and we were on our way to the hotel we had booked for that day, which happened to be on the other side of Goa, so most of the two hour trip (as estimated by Google Maps) was on the highway which was pretty cool, but when we were like 20 minutes away Google asked us to take a diversion from the highway as it was a "shorter path."

  The road became much smaller and in some time we went through a huge gate (we couldn't read what was written as it was too dark and tbh at that time we weren't even bothered). This is where the problem started, the road started becoming worse and worse and soon it was like those roads you see in safaris. 

  About this point we also lost network coverage, we were getting a little anxious by now, just then we saw a sign which said "Please refrain from feeding the wild animals." This is when we stopped our scooters to check where we actually were. So apparently Google had taken us on a shortcut which went through a wildlife reserve. We were freaked out but the map said we had only like 10 minutes of travel time before we got out of the reserve so we went on but in that road, and with our scooters, the progress was very slow. Then we saw another sign which said "beware of leopards." This is when we all actually lost it and knew we had to get out so we stuck close to each other (freaking out at every sound we heard ) and after a good 30 minutes we were finally out. Cannot tell you how relieved we were. We learned to never blindly listen to Google Maps again.
• (#6) The Pee Spot

  From Redditor /u/GReeeNIsSystem

  Once I was on holiday in Singapore with my mother. On one day we decided to check out a nearby place where the movie park is located at which we haven't had much information on -- usually my mother plans everything as careful as possible with plenty of maps and information from tour guides and the hotel people.

  Anyway, we're having a good time enjoying nature and stuff and noticed a little side road leading to a small "cave." My mother took a bunch of pictures and we kept going. Eventually we didn't quite know where we were so I pulled out the phone the hotel had given us on our rooms which had internet and therefore Google Maps. I navigated us around but we weren't really getting to where we wanted to. 

  Suddenly we noticed a man in a construction worker uniform and we decided to follow since he looked like he knew what he was doing. We followed him about 10 meters behind until we're in a rather dark area surrounded by trees which looked like a dead end. The man stops at the wall, pulls out his wiener, and pees against the wall. My mom and I then realized we've been following this poor guy to his peeing spot instead of somewhere where we could find a bus stop or anything.
• (#7) Sometimes When I'm Bored I Find Nuclear Missile Silos

  From Redditor /u/830_L

  I live not so far from a nuclear missile wing. Sometimes when I'm bored, I find nuclear missile silos on Google Maps.

  The closest I've found is 45 miles from my house. Though it may not be deemed creepy by everyone, nuclear missiles creep me the hell out. How many people does each one have the power to kill? And what's going to happen to me if they have to be fired someday? Sometimes, when you're driving around out in the country here, you'll see a bare, fenced off rectangle in a farmer's field, and that's a silo. Or you'll see a control bunker, which on the surface is basically a ranch style house surrounded by a giant fence with barbed wire around the top.
• (#8) The Bombing Site

  From Redditor /u/Pichikuin

  I once was cruising along Arizona or California on Google Maps (satellite mode) and had gone way way way off the beaten path. Like, it was only desert, for miles, and the only “road” I had seen was a dried up stream bed.

  Then suddenly I came across this bizarre carving in the ground. It was huge. I can best describe it as a circle, with increasing, smaller circles inside. It had a small metal building next to it and that was it. No roads, no houses, no cars, just a circle. I thought it might have been a farm. But if it was it’s the most nonsensical farm ever. All that space, and you made a perfect circle. In the desert, where it’s hard to grow things. Miles away from any road. And no water. If anyone can explain, I would appreciate it.
• (#9) A Panic Attack Saved My Life

  From Redditor /u/pmmeyourproblemsolva

  Let me preface this by saying I've never had a panic attack before or since.

  Leaving from Cuba, NM for Pagosa Springs, Google Maps told my wife we needed to take this one road. Well, the road was great, then it turned into an unpaved park service road. F*** it, this is New Mexico, forest service roads are a big thing here, you can cut hundreds of miles off a trip if you use them right. Of course I can't get cell service to confirm this is real and good way to go.

  F*** it, road looks good, Google says to use it, 22 miles of park service road, then NM route 4. At first the road is great, then it's good, then it is okay, finally near the end the road is shit. My truck is only a 2wd, and if it gets stuck on this powder road I'm f***ed, no cell phone, 40 miles from any civilization. Make it to the top of a large hill that was just powder all the way up, sliding around narrow corners, road is one lane at this point. Everyone in the truck was having panic attack, I pull over in the only pull out on the side of road, hands shaking so badly I can barely open the door. Not three seconds later, a GMC SUV flies down the road in the opposite direction at like 60 mph.

  If I hadn't pulled over that instant, he would have hit us head-on, the way he was flying around those blind turns he had absolutely no hope of stopping. That's how close we all came to dying that day.

  I turned around and went back to Cuba, confirmed this route would not have taken me to Pagosa Springs but would have taken to the back entrance Las Alamos National Labs.

  Weirdest thing, all our watches are about 30 minutes behind our cell phones at the end when we got back into cell coverage and could sync them.

  TLDR: A panic attack saved my life, or more correctly, all of us having panic attacks saved all our lives, somehow the time on our watches does not match the time on our phones when we re-join civilization.
• (#10) The Fog

  From Redditor /u/StrangeLob

  This sort of fits the prompt so in traditional AskReddit style I'll still tell you the story of The Fog.

  One day back in college I wanted to smoke some weed, and told my then-roommate that rather than go to our usual spot, I wanted to go on an adventure. So we looked around on Google maps for somewhere which looked secluded, and found a spot off a road in the boonies.

  Turns out, that road was actually pretty busy, and me being paranoid I decided we needed to go somewhere less busy. Since we had phones with GPS, we decided we could just drive around randomly until we found somewhere good, light up, and GPS our way back.

  So we found a closed gas station (it was like 1am at this point) out in the country and drove out behind it, and lit up. So we're waiting for a little while to come down a bit before driving back, and we start hearing this noise off in the distance, it sounds like a small motorbike, or a chainsaw. It starts getting closer, then SPEEDS UP until it sounds like it must be within 50 yards, then just cuts out.

  F*** whatever THAT is so we get in the car and drive off. Around 3 minutes later my roommate decides he's too high to keep driving, so we pull off the road. At that point, we realize part of the problem is that we drove into some fog so thick we could barely see 10 feet in front of us. Having avoided the danger, we decide to wait out the fog of the mind, or the fog of the earth, whichever left first.

  The fog is very eerie; we're seeing faint lights come on the horizon and slowly grow in intensity for what felt like minutes until finally a car would pass by. Being high and paranoid augmented this eerie feeling of course. We sit here for probably a half hour... and we start hearing the noise again, in the distance... slowly getting closer and closer, until it sounds like it's right outside our car, then it cuts out.

  So we've obviously been followed by some serial killer, and we accept our demise at this point. But... it never comes, and we never see anything. After about 15 minutes, we feel ready to go again, so we leave, and make it home unscathed. We never did find out what the noise was...
• (#11) Beware Of The Increased Radiation

  From Redditor /u/Ibce

  So, my partner and I had been visiting Kiev in autumn of 2015 and we picked up a cat from the street. So we moved to a different room, one that allowed cats. The owner had a dog. I asked him if he knew any good vet clinics and he recommended one nearby.

  We were visiting it semi-regularly, with the cat we went per public transport, but to pick up some stuff we went by feet, because it's just cheaper. Also, to note: it was in a pretty central area of Kiev, definitely not the outskirts.

  So the first time we were going back from the clinic I whipped out my phone and we just lazily followed the blue line.

  The whole area was built a little bit like the blocks in NYC and in many other places on Earth - straight streets with intersections spaced out somewhat evenly. Imagine my surprise when I started to turn into one of the intersections, led by the always trusty Mr. Google Maps, and saw a huge fcking sign that said to beware of the increased radiation. We were about to walk into the territory of a nuclear reactor.
• (#12) The Church of Scientology's Private Prison

  From Redditor /u/Gromann

  I think my creepiest detour was when I accidentally stumbled across this really odd mansion like building that had spiked fences all around with trees encompassing the entire thing.

  Gave me the impression of it being something like a concentration camp, just a few large buildings with a single house in some non-popular area of southern California.

  About 2 years later I find out the Church of Scientology has a private prison in southern California and I skimmed its entrance.
• (#13) Just A Creepy Looking Shack At The End Of A Dirt Path

  From Redditor /u/arnivold

  I was going to a nature preserve to go hiking for a bit. I plugged in the address, and instead of taking me to the nature preserve itself, I was taken to a worn-down looking shack a few blocks away from the nature preserve, where I parked in bewilderment. And I mean this thing looked like it was barely holding itself up. No animals, no farmland, no cars around, just a creepy-looking shack at the end of a dirt path. Next thing I knew, this guy who looked to be in his early to mid fifties walks out of the shack with a shotgun aimed right at me while I'm still in the car, screaming at me to get the hell off his property. He didn't even finish shouting at me before I hit reverse and nope'd the f*ck away.

  I eventually found the preserve and went hiking but that's the closest I've come to getting shot.

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