Google Maps - 12 Years Later, Prank Discovered

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In 2011, google maps was still a new and exciting thing to many people. Today, it holds more than 5 petabytes (5000 terabytes which is 5,000,000 gigabytes).

A 17-year-old, Rory McInnes, came up with an idea. He waited until his parents went out of town on vacation. Then, he went onto his roof with a white spray can and traced the outline of a 60-foot phallus. He’d hoped to wait and eventually see it via Google Maps.

Months went by and nobody noticed. It didn’t populate on google maps or any other satellite imagery either. Rory was disappointed, but hellbent on keeping his secret until the news broke.

He eventually moved on with his life and was eventually studying abroad in Brazil.

One day, a full year later, a helicopter was going over his parent’s house and spotted something.

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Then, a reporter showed up at the McInnes house. The father answered the door and he was told about the state of his roof. He didn’t believe them at first and said, “It’s an April Fool’s joke, right? There’s no way there’s a 60ft phallus on top of my house.”

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He began calling around to see who did it. Then, he called his son, Rory, who immediately said, “You finally found it!”

McInnes’s father ended up having a good sense of humor about it. But his son still had to paint over it after he returned home.

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