Staying at her parents, an 18-year-old Ontario woman planned a quick trip to McDonald’s to get milkshakes with her 11-year-old cousin.
She drove them to the Bellaire McDonald’s, not far from her parents’ condominium, on Saturday, March 8, but it had already closed when they arrived at 10:30 p.m. She then used her global-positioning system to find the next closest McDonald’s.
She drove 12 miles to the Mancelona McDonald’s, but it, too, was closed. Her GPS told her there was a McDonald’s in Kalkaska County, so on they went. There was supposed to be a McDonald’s near Flannery Machine.
She found Flannery, but no McDonald’s.
Meanwhile, her family became frantic. They called the Antrim County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s deputies spent several hours looking for her. Her family did, too.
The trouble was, “They didn’t even know where to start,” Antrim County Sheriff Daniel Bean said.
She didn’t have her cell phone, so police couldn’t “ping” it to find out where she was. She couldn’t call for help, either.
Things soon got worse. The young woman decided to head back to her parents’ home. The GPS led her down a side road off of U.S. 131 and she got her car stuck in a snowbank. She and her cousin stayed overnight in the car. The next morning, she walked to Flannery Machine and called her mother for help.
Sheriff’s deputies drove over and brought them back. They have since returned to Ontario.
Bean said that “technology is great but we have to also use common sense when using GPS and other technology.”
He said it was fortunate that the two cousins were safe. It “could have been disastrous,” he said.
