A Typo Landed an Innocent Gamer in Prison for 18 Months
A Canadian man was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 months after police subpoenaed the wrong user account due to a single-character typo in a username. The error, which confused 'fus__ro_dah' with 'fus_ro_dah', was only discovered during the appeal process, leading to his conviction being overturned.
Why it matters
The case highlights the dangers of digital evidence reliance in law enforcement and the catastrophic human consequences of minor clerical errors in forensic investigations.
A 2018 child-luring investigation, which began in Madison, Wisconsin, and eventually extended to Halifax, Canada, was based on a false premise.
Police were looking for a man using the Kik messaging service under the name “fus__ro_dah” (two underscores after “fus”), but they accidentally requested records for the username “fus_ro_dah” (one underscore after “fus”). This one-character difference led them not to the perpetrator but to a Canadian man named Brandon Klayme.
(Readers may recognize “fus ro dah” as the Unrelenting Force “dragon shout” from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.)
Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term.
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