A high-powered Los Angeles couple is suing Google Maps for allegedly sending them to a dangerous South African neighborhood known as “Hell Run” — where they were brutally attacked at gunpoint, breaking the husband’s jaw.

Jason and ​Katharine Zoladz, who is the regional director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s LA office, used the app in October to navigate from their Airbnb to Cape Town’s airport, the Mercury News reported.

They planned to swap their rental car for an SUV to drive to a wildlife preserve at the Kalahari Desert, the outlet said, citing a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

The couple claims Google Maps routed them into the Nyanga neighborhood, which has long been known locally as the site of “numerous” violent attacks on tourists by armed bandits – and despite warnings to the tech giant from US and local officials about the errant directions.

“Gangs of robbers would lie in wait for tourists traveling in rental cars” and would “assault the cars by throwing bricks or large stones through the car windows, violently assaulting the occupants, and stealing valuables,” the lawsuit reportedly states.

The victims were left “injured, maimed, or dead,” it added.

Google Maps directed the couple to a notorious stretch of highway dubbed “Hell Run” due to the violent attacks on tourists who wandered into the area, according to the filing.

The nearby New Eisleben Road was known as a “prime site” for the attacks because “the gangs knew that Google Maps sent unsuspecting tourists driving rental cars” along it, the suit alleges, according to the Mercury News.

When the Zoladzes stopped at a red light, armed goons surrounded their vehicle.

“One of them threw a paving brick through the driver’s side window, breaking Jason Zoladz’s lower jaw bone into several pieces, cutting through his skin and muscle to bone, and rendering him unconscious,” the lawsuit reportedly states.

The gunmen pulled the couple from the car, fired several gunshots and stole their cash, credit cards and cell phones before fleeing, according to the report.

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Jason was left “bleeding and disoriented as he and Katharine attempted to navigate to a hospital or to a police station,” according to the lawsuit.

After being escorted to a hospital by a cop, Jason​ underwent three hours of reconstructive surgery and “now lives with four metal plates in his jaw, continued pain and numbness, and faces the likelihood of future surgeries,” the lawsuit states.

Katharine was left with lasting emotional damage, it says.

A consular official at the hospital said “other Americans had been attacked along the same route and that United States and South African officials had been in discussions with Google Maps for a while, trying to get Google Maps to stop sending people along that route,” it says.

Cape Town officials later told the couple that they also had been trying to meet with Google Maps officials about the issue, according to their claim.

The company agreed to stop Google Maps from directing people through the dangerous area three weeks after the brutal attack, the suit claims.

 “That was too late for the Zoladzes,” it says.

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“We take driver safety very seriously,” Google spokesman José Castañeda told the Mercury News late Wednesday.

“We consider a wide range of factors to deliver routes — like road size, directness and estimated travel time — and continually work to improve our routing,” he said, adding that the company was reviewing the lawsuit.

The couple are seeking unspecified damages.

The SEC announced Nov. 29 that Katharine was being named regional director of the agency’s LA office.

She had joined the agency in 2010 and served as acting co-director since June 2023 and as associate regional director for enforcement since October 2019, according to her bio.

Prior to joining the SEC, Katharine practiced securities and complex commercial litigation. 

She earned her bachelor’s degree in international politics from Georgetown University and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.