Aug. 23--Mary Ann and Duane Guenthner don't have Internet access or even a home computer in Laurel.

They don't own a GPS device. And they have used the same telephone number for four decades since switchboard operators physically connected calls at the phone exchange in downtown Laurel.

So they are unlikely candidates to be caught up in a GPS data error that brings unwanted calls at all hours of the day, including scary calls in the middle of the night.

"You bail out of bed, your heart is racing. You don't know if there's been an accident," Mary Ann Guenthner said. "I've got grandkids and, gosh, don't tell me they're hurt."

For 40 years, the couple has owned a small mobile-home park in Park City, D&M Court, which holds only eight homes and rarely has a vacancy.

But somewhere in cyberspace, their business got listed as a GPS "point of interest" category, such as a restaurant or gas station.

So for two long summers, some travelers with tents or RVs passing through this area have found D&M Court listed on their GPS and call to see if a camping space is available.

Orderliness is valued at the home, where Duane keeps his lawn sprinklers on timers and used to raise 5-pound sweet onions. Now, from mid-June to mid-September when Americans head out on vacation, their phone rings three to five times a day -- or night -- from weary travelers looking for lodging.

After two recent heart surgeries, Duane has had enough.

"It isn't fair to us to have our sleep interrupted, and some of them are incredibly rude," he said. "I didn't do anything to them."

Tech fixes hard to find\n

You would think the technological geniuses that developed a GPS the size of a matchbook that can track a person's footsteps around the world would be able to help the Guenthners.

Two companies have offered help, but a quick fix is evasive.

Mary Ann Guenthner has spent hours on the phone, starting with the Better Business Bureau. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission told her she would have to find the name of the company that originally made the error and ask for a correction.

But there's no easy way to trace back which company or individual swept up data or where it was taken from, telephone directories, state or city records, trade organizations or wherever. The Guenthners have never taken out a Yellow Page ad for their mobile-home court, but they do belong to the Montana Landlords Association.

The Federal Communications Commission, which doesn't regulate GPS, told them it probably can't stop the calls.

They were told to call the U.S. Department of Defense and even the U.S. Coast Guard, but they didn't bother with that.

State of Montana regulators in three agencies couldn't do anything, either.

"Nobody seemed to give me any answers," Mary Ann said.

On the Internet, data is swept up and quickly aggregated by hundreds, if not thousands, of providers. And digital map data comes from many other sources, so if someone anywhere along the line enters a wrong code, it can end up all over the world.

"If some wrong piece of information gets in there, it's harder and harder to track down the source and get it stopped," said Paige Darden, an owner of MyTopo.com, a Billings-based mapping company.

Garmin and Navteq to the rescue?

Finally, the Guenthners started asking some callers how they got the D&M Court number and were told that it came up on a Garmin International GPS.

The senior corporate communications manager at Garmin's office in Kansas City, Kan., Ted Gartner, said his company buys its main databases from another company, Navteq in Chicago. Navteq is a subsidiary of Nokia Corp., which mainly sells cell phones.

"I would say for six jillion points of interest we have on road information, the complaints we get are few and far between, but it does happen," Gartner said.

Errors can be corrected online at www.navteq.com, then click on "map reporter" at the top of the page. Garmin's address for errors is http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/errorForm.jsp.

Navteq said it has D&M Court is listed as a point of interest, but the Park City business is not identified as a 24-hour lodging site.

"We would be happy to reach out to the owners to discuss a resolution to this situation that meets their needs," the company said in a written response.

But that helping hand may not reach far enough.

GPS units are connected to wireless networks to track a user's location. But the databases are programmed at the factory. That means users won't receive the corrections unless they pay for an update.

"We do sell downloadable map updates. They run anywhere from $70 to $100," Gartner said.

So even with a correction, the Guenthners may be getting calls from sleepy travelers for years to come.

One Garmin GPS device apparently using Navteq data lists the wrong location for The Pickle Barrel sandwich shop and lists Gunsmoke BBQ in downtown Billings under restaurants. That business has closed.

The best option for the Guenthners may be to change the telephone number they've had since 1956 and put up with the hassle of notifying friends and family.

"I think it's too bad we might have to change our phone number," Duane said.

Contact Jan Falstad at jfalstad@billingsgazette.com or 657-1306.

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