JACKSON-If you’re heading to the Borgata Hotel and Casino in the seaside resort of Atlantic City, you might find something not right when you’re directed to drive down a bumpy dirt road through a secluded and wooded state forest. You might grow more suspicious once that road turns into a sandy dirt hunting and access trail barely wide enough for one vehicle to pass. When you notice your car getting stuck in soft Pine Barrens sugar sand in the middle of nowhere while on your way to Atlantic City, you might finally realize you have a problem.
Or you might not.
That’s according to the Jackson Police Department who have been fielding calls about vehicles stuck in the expanse of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Refuge, a huge nature preserve that for some reason the Waze travel app is directing visitors to Atlantic City’s Borgata hotel through. The Borgata is some 45 miles from Colliers Mills.
“It has come to our attention that an ad was placed, in the WAZE navigation app, for the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. Although the address on the ad lists 1 Borgata Way in Atlantic City NJ, which is correct, the location pinned with the ad is actually in the middle of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, near Lake Success,” the Police Department said. “The wildlife area is comprised of more than 12,000 acres, mainly located in Jackson and Plumsted townships, which is about 45 miles away from the actual Borgata Casino in Atlantic City. Currently, the app is sending motorists into the wildlife area, onto unpaved roads, which eventually lead to them becoming disabled. Please take extra care when selecting locations listed with the orange “Ad” logo in the corner or places which have multiple names, with the same address; however are considerable distances apart. WAZE was also contacted regarding this error.”
Police said the app was directing travelers bound for the bright lights of Atlantic City through one of the most remote places in New Jersey.
Instead of dropping money on the craps table, these motorists instead dropped a few hundred dollars on tow truck services to pull them from the sandy trails of Colliers Mills.