1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser
Suggested Search and Destroy

Student Googles Himself, Finds He’s Accused of Murder

by Robert Quigley | 11:35 am, November 30th, 2010

I can’t possibly improve upon Tampa Bay news station WTSP’s headline on this story, so I’m not even going to try: A University of Florida student and Publix employee named Zachary Garcia idly Googled himself only to discover that his photo had been circulated by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in connection with a murder. But the suspect in the felony murder case in question was Zachery Garcia – that’s Zachery with an “e.”

Zachary Garcia, the one who’s not a murder suspect:

“I was just very shocked to find my picture and the article saying that I was convicted of a felony murder charge,” he said, “and I was just very shocked and angry that someone put my name up there and said I did something I didn’t do.”

“Everybody makes mistakes,” Garcia added. “I work at Publix and I might get somebody’s sub (order) wrong. But for somebody to get (the photo of a suspect) wrong…it’s not a sandwich, it’s somebody’s life you’re playing with.”

And now as this story spreads, non-murder suspect Zachary Garcia is going to see his name pop up in all of these murder-related stories about how Googling his name used to erroneously cause his photo to turn up in connection with a murder case. D’oh!

(WTSP via Fark)

  • Phil

    Can you say ‘SUE’ with a ‘E’? Can you say ‘Slander’ with a ‘E’? Can you say ‘Defamation of Character’ with a ‘E’? I know he will be able to say ‘Money’ !! The idiot that posted his picture on the web without double checking and also using a ‘spell check’ should be TERMINATED!! If they can’t post a picture without checking spelling why are the taxpayers of Polk county paying for this ‘employee’? Maybe that employee should pay Polk county whatever they have to pay out when the county is SUED!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/kaitzi Kaitlin Guzzi

    Whoa, chill out. Did anything happen to the kid? Was he harassed on the street and called a murderer? It’s a stupid mistake but it’s not like anyone was even minorly injured or killed over it.

  • Hate, Y U No Love?

    the concept of lawsuit goes over the head of a lot of people. many don’t realize that you have to prove that some form of negative action or loss resulted from the mistake. that the guy admits he didn’t even know about it until he googled himself is enough to prove there was little to no impact. don’t get me wrong, sheriffs and news agencies in Florida are dumb as hell… this mistake is almost pedestrian compared to the crap they’ve done… but lawsuit? that’s lame and incredibly low-brow

  • PointlessIDrequirements

    spell check doesn’t do proper nouns like names.

  • Anonymous

    How long was his picture up before he found out about it? Didn’t his friends or fellow students watch the news, see the photo, and either let him know or call the cops?


Abrams Media Network click here for advertising opportunities

© 2012 Geekosystem, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram