Best Buy Employee "Outs" Straight Guy

[The Wooster]

Best Buy Employee "Outs" Straight Guy

A heterosexual gentleman has accused a Best Buy Employee of impersonating him on Facebook.

Denver resident, Rich Dewberry, took his mobile phone to Best Buy to have it repaired and was given a new phone. Unfortunately Dewberry hadn't signed out of Facebook and shortly after he deposited the phone, his Facebook status was updated to read, "I am gay, I'm coming out."

"The phone just started ringing constantly after that from [an] ex-spouse to friends," he said.

Dewberry filed a complaint with the store, who responded that they'd already fired the employee responsible.

Now the "sign in as someone else and make them say embarrassing stuff" prank has been a mainstay of pubescent jokery for years - I recall one wasted summer spent trying to sign up a friend for an al-Qaeda terrorist cell - but Dewberry isn't laughing. He apparently isn't very keen on being mistaken for a homosexual.

"I feel I have been humiliated. My reputation has been tarnished," he said.

"Just having to explain it to certain people that I haven't been in contact for a while," he continued. "I feel I shouldn't have to do that."

He's currently exploring his legal options with his attorney. That is not a euphemism.

Source: KMGH [http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/30981787/index.html]

Permalink

 

[antipunt]

He's currently exploring his legal options with his attorney. That is not a euphemism.

Sooo much winnn....

 

[Darkmantle]

wow, so much drama. I hope he doesn't play CoD or his reputation would be "tarnished" several times a match by people calling him ******.

 

[thethird0611]

He's currently exploring his legal options with his attorney. That is not a euphemism.

Sooo much winnn....

Dont know if to laugh... or not. Must... appear... mature.

 

[lacktheknack]

Your reputation wasn't tarnished until you said that. -_-

I'm Facebook friends with someone who left her Facebook open and the "hilarious prankster" wrote a status about being a child molester, but that whole hubbub lasted a full day before she re-logged in, deleted the status and shouted down the guy who did it (BECAUSE SERIOUSLY, WTF). Reputation damage: 0.

This story has only proved to me further that some people need to stop taking themselves so seriously. A simple "I'm gay, ha ha" on your Facebook wall isn't anything close to the worst thing they could have done, he should have ended with a general complaint and not pursued legal action.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Your reputation wasn't tarnished until you said that. -_-

I'm Facebook friends with someone who left her Facebook open and the "hilarious prankster" wrote a status about being a child molester, but that whole hubbub lasted a full day before she re-logged in, deleted the status and shouted down the guy who did it (BECAUSE SERIOUSLY, WTF). Reputation damage: 0.

This story has only proved to me further that some people need to stop taking themselves so seriously. A simple "I'm gay, ha ha" on your Facebook wall isn't anything close to the worst thing they could have done, he should have ended with a general complaint and not pursued legal action.

While I'm not sure how fair it is for this article to almost paint this dude as a homophobe, a persons sexual identity is kind of a sensitive topic. He could have been put in an awkward position in front friends family and co workers and the person doing it was a representative of a corporation that needed to maintain the trust so that they could conduct business like this. Maybe this time this guy just changed someone's Facebook status, but in the end it still pretty much amounts to identity theft. I think a lawsuit is fine IMHO.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

This is hilarious.

Not because of the prank itself but the fact that Facebook has grown so huge that it can apparently affect your entire life to this extent.

Another reason why I don't bother with the damned parasite.

 

[newwiseman]

How hard is it to tell someone "I got hacked".

Maybe its embarrassing if your an intolerant ass but for the average person they just change their password and put out a new post saying "My account got hacked"

 

[silver wolf009]

If he could prove this somehow negatively affected his life in a serious way, I.E., his work suffered or he lost sleep over it or something like that, I'm fairly certain he'd win a slander case.[footnote]Or is it libel for written words? I can never remember, but I want to say it's slander.[/footnote]

Anyway, he could reasonably take this one to court, and I could even see him winning it.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

granted the best buy employee is a complete douchebag, especially doing that to someone you probably don't even know

however, simply saying "that wasn't me, phone was used by someone else, i'm not gay" is pretty dang easy....seeking legal issues? you kidding me? you must live in some very very strange world, as that is almost offensive in itself to take that much offense to it, regardless.

 

[Charli]

Unless there was some true life ramifications (lost girlfriend, family disownerment, job loss) from this joke that barely qualifies as a competant april fools prank. Then grow a spine you child. My own flesh and blood have mistakenly let loose worse information about me than 'lol i am gay' on the sodding internet.



Captcha: Emperor's clothes. I feel swanky.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Now the "sign in as someone else and make them say embarrassing stuff" prank has been a mainstay of pubescent jokery for years - I recall one wasted summer spent trying to sign up a friend for an al-Qaeda terrorist cell - but Dewberry isn't laughing. He apparently isn't very fond of homosexuals.

While he is perhaps reacting stronger than I would in this situation, I wouldn't say that him not liking a status that implies he's gay is the same as not being fond of homosexuals (unless of course he said something later on in the story that suggests that), just that he isn't fond of perhaps being identified as one.

Anyways, so is he overeacting? Perhaps, but I can see where he's coming from. Seeing how Facebook can actually affect things such as getting a job, I can see how someone would be angry about changes made to their profile especially if these changes could work negatively against them. Being gay of course shouldn't be a factor that affects getting a job, but it's not like someone couldn't judge their descision to hire based on that one item. To me in this case it looks more like a "It's the principal of the matter" type of scenario rather than a "I have been greatly harmed" scenario.

 

[nohorsetown]

Just wanna chime in to say: it is not fucking classy to imply that the guy's a homophobe. Also: the headline is misleading, the al-Qaeda "joke" is tasteless and awkward, and the end joke doesn't even exist ("not a euphemism" - what part of your preceding sentence even remotely resembles a familiar euphemism? "Exploring"? Nope. "Options"? Nope. "Attorney"? See, there's nothing. No actual joke fuel!) Bleh. Terrible!

As far as the actual topic is concerned: of course it's identity theft. Probably not too hard of a mess to clean up, tho. Dude can easily post an explanation on facebook. Looks like he'd rather sue someone. Fair enough.

 

[Something Amyss]

wow, so much drama. I hope he doesn't play CoD or his reputation would be "tarnished" several times a match by people calling him ******.

I don't see what the problem is; I've successfully sued 2,428,165 "accounts."

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Wow talk about not being able to take a joke.
Who really doesn't see an "i am gay" post on facebook and not immediately think it's a frape anyway?

 

[AstylahAthrys]

The "I'm gay" facebook post when logged onto a device that other people have access to is extremely common. I see it all the time on mine, always followed by a "Agh, I left my page up." The guy needs to chill.

 

[Bvenged]

He's currently exploring his legal options with his attorney. That is not a euphemism.

Sooo much winnn....

Pffffft. Bwahahahaah!

Agreed.

Unfortunately as fun a prank it is, it's illegal (at least in the UK) and legal action can be pursued. It comes under The computer Misuse Act 1990 [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/1] as unauthorised access to someone's private information, whether they left it on unsecured or not. They didn't authorise you to use it therefore you are in breach of the law. Of course if your buddy know it was a joke, they obviously won't go running to the police about it.

This is the single-most boring thing, for you guys, I have ever said. It seems my education is working. Yay-crap!

Lets never speak of this again.