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This article was published 30/4/2015 (1970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Michael Tyas was in the right place at the right time, and he had the GPS location data to prove it.

The 32-year-old was caught off guard earlier this month when he received a letter from Manitoba Public Insurance stating he was on the hook for damages after the rental car he was driving in December was seen backing into another vehicle in the Polo Park mall parking lot.

The eyewitness at the scene, who happened to be an off-duty police officer, took down the vehicle's make, model and licence plate, and informed MPI of the fender bender.

'I started to pull my hair out ‐ how am I going to prove where I was? Plus, it's an off-duty police officer and I'm just a regular person' ‐ Michael Tyas

One problem: Tyas and his rented Volkswagen Jetta weren't at Polo Park.

"I wasn't really sure what the letter was about," he said Wednesday. "I didn't know what the specifics were. Maybe I did back into someone? It's not uncommon for people to accidentally back into someone."

Tyas, who rented the car to visit family in the Interlake over Christmas, said MPI contacted the rental car company about the claim, at which time the company told MPI there was no damage to its vehicle. The investigation continued and found its way to Tyas -- four months after the alleged incident.

Curious what this was all about, Tyas called the MPI investigator assigned to his file to find out more about the accident he didn't remember. As it turns out, it never happened. As MPI outlined how he was 100 per cent at-fault for the collision, Tyas cross-referenced the day of the accident with his travel plans. He was nearly 200 kilometres outside of Winnipeg at the time.

But he had another problem. Tyas prefers to buy things with cash, so he didn't have any debit or credit card statement history that placed him outside of Winnipeg that day. Panic started to set in.

"I started to pull my hair out -- how am I going to prove where I was? Plus, it's an off-duty police officer, and I'm just a regular person," he said. "This is not good, I thought."

Fortunately, Tyas had left the GPS location feature on his Android phone switched on. With that eye in the sky, coupled with the mileage on the car, the scales of MPI justice now tilted in his favour.

"It was able to completely accurately, to the second, show that I was in Ashern at the time of the accident," he said. "You could clearly see I wasn't in the city then. Much like a credit card statement, the location evidence is indelible."

When activated, the Google location service -- accessing GPS satellites, Wi-Fi networks and mobile networks on most smartphones -- sends out a "ping" every five to 10 minutes to pinpoint the location of the phone. Users often keep this feature activated. Those who engage in social media use it to help others find their location.

Tyas typed in the specific time of the specific day into the Google location history website and showed it to MPI. The next morning, the Crown corporation informed Tyas he was no longer being considered in the investigation.

"You assume adjusters have seen it all," he said. "It was definitely a new one for him. I wish them luck in finding out what happened."

A spokesman for MPI said using a smartphone's GPS location service feature as evidence in a collision claim is indeed new, and compares the practice to use of a dashboard camera, a building surveillance system or even footage taken from a Winnipeg Transit security camera -- which have all been used to find at-fault individuals.

All information surrounding a collision is welcome information, MPI says, especially in cases where a third-party witness is the only lead to go on.

"Much of it rests on what the driver tells us in their statement and what evidence they can produce to help further solidify their claim," Brian Smiley said Wednesday. "Is GPS location common? No, but it is coming up as evidence in our investigations. And we welcome it. The more information we can get about a case, the better for everyone involved."

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca