Who knew one lone rock could cause so much trouble for a Nebraska neighbourhood?
The boulder is jokingly dubbed “The West Maple Omaha Rock: World famous” on Google Maps. Sitting inconveniently on a curb, it’s become the talk of the town given how many cars continue to accidentally drive over it.
The “tourist attraction” has 215 reviews and is rated five stars on the website. Its Google Maps page is populated with over 40 images, most of them featuring cars and SUVs that had, at some point, inadvertently rolled over the boulder.
Some of the photos even feature the rock dressed up with googly eyes. Another shows the attraction with a small toy car placed on top of it.
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“I highly suggest watching the fun from a small distance,” one humorous reviewer wrote. Another wrote in their own review: “It’s truly fun to see something as inanimate as a rock bring people together.”
“I was able to safely navigate around the now infamous West Maple Rock on a recent Saturday morning,” one person joked.
In just six week’s time, at least six cars have had to be towed because of this unfortunately-placed boulder, Arrow Towing manager Steve Rains told CNN.
“The Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area has a very eclectic art environment. A lot of places use boulders to decorate at their curb areas,” Rains said.
“People just seem to like them. Some of it could be traffic control.”
The rock’s popularity really skyrocketed thanks to its Facebook group, The W Maple Omaha Rock and a Reddit community.
The Facebook group — which boasts 25,000 members and counting, and has named the boulder “Rocko” — was formerly run by employees at the nearby UPS store, per the group’s description.
It seems, however, that complaints have forced them to forfeit ownership of the account.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances (people calling our boss and complaining), Christie and myself (the UPS girls) can no longer have anything to do with this group,” the description reads.
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“So for anyone who has a problem with this group and would like to complain, it is no longer the UPS employees running this.”
One Reddit user, Rob “gallowboob” Allam, told CNN that its driver impatience that’s the problem — not the rock’s positioning.
“The internet loves a good justice story, especially when it comes down to petty crimes being brought to light, like jumping a curb to gain three seconds on your day and instead finding yourself stuck on top of a rock for half a day,” he said.
Allam continued: “The beauty here is that 99 per cent of the cars that got stuck on it have the exact same ‘pose’ in the photos, and it’s just comedy at the expense of people’s laziness and lack of attention, thinking they are smarter than… a rock.”
One of the Facebook group’s members, James Erwin, shared a humorous photo of an astronaut on the Moon, his space vehicle perched on top of the boulder. The astronaut has a speech bubble over their head, reading: “Houston.. we have a problem.”
One couple, per the Reddit group, even got engaged beside the rock.
“You are my rock when life runs you over,” the person who shared the image captioned it.
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