GPS glitch sends elderly woman on two-day, 900-mile detour across four countries

GPS systems are meant to make our lives easier, but when they go wrong, the results can be unexpectedly dramatic. Sabine Moreau, a 67-year-old woman from Belgium, learned this lesson the hard way. What should have been a short two-hour drive soon spiraled into an unexpected odyssey through Europe, thanks to a glitch in her TomTom GPS system. Instead of reaching Brussels in a couple of hours, Moreau ended up in Zagreb, Croatia, some 900 miles away, per UNILAD. She did not even realize her mistake until after two days of driving across continental Europe. Moreau had stepped out to pick up her friend from a train station 38 miles away.

​“I was distracted, so I kept on the accelerator,” Moreau explained in an interview with El Mundo. Along the way, she passed through France, Germany, Austria and Slovenia, and yet she continued to drive without ever questioning the route her GPS was taking her. “I saw all kinds of signs, first in French, then in German, and finally in Croatian, but I kept driving because I was distracted,” she said. “Maybe, but I was just preoccupied,” she added when asked about the language changes and why she did not stop to think something was wrong, as per DailyMail. Her friend, whom she was supposed to pick up from the train station, didn’t hear from Moreau, and her son, who had been expecting her to return soon, became worried.

No one noticed the unexpected detour immediately. But the family soon realized something was wrong and called the police. By this time, Moreau had already crossed multiple borders and unknowingly traveled through five countries before reaching Croatia. She stopped twice for gas and even took breaks to rest in her car. “I stopped several times for petrol and paid with my credit card. When I felt tired, I stopped for a few hours of sleep in the car on a lay-by,” Moreau said. Despite these pit stops, she remained unaware of how far off course she had gone. "Until I suddenly appeared in Zagreb and then it dawned on me that I was no longer in Belgium,” she admitted.

“I didn’t really notice anything was wrong until I suddenly arrived in Zagreb and realized that I was no longer in Belgium,” she added. At that point, Moreau contacted her family to let them know where she was. Her son, who had reported her missing, was relieved to hear from her, though still shocked by the situation. Police, who had been preparing to launch a manhunt, were just as baffled by the bizarre situation. “This is an incredible story,” said a police spokesperson. “These GPS systems cause problems from time to time, but nothing like this. But this woman has done nothing wrong and we just have to believe her.”

Moreau’s story quickly caught the attention of media outlets and the public, with many expressing disbelief that someone could drive for two full days without realizing they were far from home. It also raised questions about how easily people can get distracted during long drives, to the point of not noticing major signs of being lost. As Moreau herself put it, “I was a bit absent-minded as I had a few things to think about, I suppose.” After 60 hours of driving, Moreau finally made it back home to Belgium.