Man following GPS unit drives car into Alaskan waters

When you're lost, ae GPS can come in really handy, but sometimes having too much faith in technology can be a bad thing.

A man in Alaska pulled a Michael Scott (see video at the bottom) and while taking advice from his GPS, drove his car into the water early Thursday morning.

The Anchorage Daily News reports the man, who isn't named, was moving to Alaska and was arriving on a ferry into the town of Whittier. He drove off the ferry onto the road in his Subaru that was loaded down with his belongings plus two dogs and a cat, but didn't drive far. He drove a little more than 100 metres when his GPS unit told him to make a right.

"The GPS apparently misrouted him, and he drove down the ramp for launching boats into the water," said Dave Schofield, director of the city's Department of Public Safety, to the Anchorage Daily News. "He was unfamiliar with the area is the only answer I have for you."

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Elizabeth Dernbach was opening her coffee shop near the boat ramp when someone ran in telling her to call 911.

"I looked over and there was a car in the water, in the harbour, and it was sinking," she said to the paper.

It didn't take long for the entire car to submerge. A man then jumped in the water and smashed the window and helped the dogs escape. The cat was inside a carrier and drowned.

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Even if we count Michael Scott driving into the water on The Office, this man in Alaska isn't even the second person to follow the GPS off road. In March, a group of Japanese tourists followed their GPS into the water in Australia. They were trying to drive to an island and the GPS didn't tell them about the 15 kilometres between where they were and the island.

As for the man in Alaska, Schofield said he was shaken up after the ordeal. A local towing company pulled his car from the water.

(Reuters photo of Japanese tourist's car stuck in water in Australia)

Here is Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell on The Office, pulling a similar maneuver.