In the majority of countries across the world, there is one mapping tool that beats all the others.

Whether you’re plotting your route to an unfamiliar restaurant, driving home for the holidays and avoiding a road closure, planning a road trip, or simply exploring the planet we live on, Google Maps has you covered.

And usually, the information found there is pretty reliable, with to-the-minute data about traffic jams and even speed cameras.

However, despite the prevalence of Street View cars on our streets and the data obtained from our smart devices, Google Maps can be unreliable at times for one key reason.

Every one of us can input our own data to it.

Sure, Google has a lot of monitoring in place in attempt to avoid misleading uploads, but every time you flag a speed camera or click that little button to confirm that the traffic you’re stuck in is still, in fact, present (not while driving though, of course!) you are adding your own little bit of data to Google’s systems.

And this has never been more true than with Google Street View, where Google’s own Street View recordings can be supplemented with data from businesses and Google users.

Intended for stores, restaurants, and other businesses to showcase the inside of their premises to potential customers, Street View allows users to upload their own 360-degree footage to the service, to allow users around the world to virtually set foot in their environment.

We can even take a virtual stroll around a hardware store.

Sounds good right? So where’s the catch?

Well, as Reddit users have recently discovered, sometimes – whether intentionally or accidentally – the data can go a little haywire.

And this is never more true than when mysterious hardware stores, all named Joca Construção, were discovered in the middle of the ocean.

And not just one ocean, either. A bit of investigation will identify Joca Construção locations tapping into diverse markets in underwater destinations across the world, including off the coast of Canada, Hawaii, Iceland, and California.

Don’t be mistaken, these aren’t tiny islands with just a random hardware store in residence. Neither is it run by mermaids.

If you were unlucky enough to captain your dinghy there in the quest of a tin of paint or a new mallet, you’d be sorely disappointed – as well as wet, exhausted, and probably in a whole lot of danger.

So how did this real-life store, actually located in Pomerode, Brazil, end up flinging its different aisles into different oceans across the world?

Well there are two explanations here.

Either, this was a deliberate joke by internet users who manipulated the coordinates of the aisles to spread them across the ocean, leaving hapless customers stranded in the ocean and the stores client base sabotaged.

Or, more likely, this was a glitch when the marketing firm the Brazilian company hired inputted the data.

Regardless, the store seems to still be doing well, despite its ambiguous, oceanic locations.

It just goes to show that it’s worth relying on your gut sometimes, rather than trusting technology.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.