Veteran Reads Fake Obituary About His Own Death, Family Upset

| June 13, 2019

 

Well, this is certainly a new twist…

WTVR out of Richmond Virginia has reported that a veteran woke up to the sound of his mother crying because she was reading the veteran’s fake obituary.

Fake obituary stuns Chesterfield veteran and his family: ‘I woke up to the sound of my mom crying’

The story has been published and taken down so we will supply it here in case it disappears again:  WTVR – FAKE OBITUARY STORY

The family immediately reached out to the newspaper, desperate to figure out how this happened.

“There was an error made, they have standard operating procedures, they check, but in this case somebody missed something,” Felger said he was told.

“We can confirm that a private citizen submitted this false information to the Times-Dispatch through our online obituary portal,” said Jason Dillon, vice president of advertising for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The obituary was taken off the website, and the next day, a correction was printed.

It read: “On Page B4 Thursday, the Times-Dispatch erroneously published an obituary for Staff Sgt. Justin W. Felger. Felger is alive. We regret the error and have apologized to Felger and his family.”

But the bogus obit was just the tip of the iceberg.

About that same time, Felger said his Facebook and email accounts were hacked.

“They accessed my whole life by social media,” Felger said. “I had to stop all my line of credit, I’ve had to call everybody and explain to them, ‘No, I’m not deceased.’”

Then…

Longtime local sheriff’s deputy Miles Turner said it was obvious that the culprit does not respect the men and women who have served this country.

“It’s almost like another form of stolen valor as far as I’m concerned,” said Turner, who owns and operates Law Enforcement Consulting LLC.

The article then says that “under Virginia law, submitting false information to a publication is a crime.”

Yeah, right.  Tell that to the many embellishers we’ve seen here.   In fairness, I don’t know how many were from Virginia or if there are similar laws in other states.  It would be interesting to find out, however.

Category: Media, Military issues

23 Comments
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Ex-PH2

This is why I don’t do so-called social media. Never will.

It’s a rotten thing to do to someone who has done nothing to deserve it, but the people who do these things have nothing better to do.

I hope they catch the rotten little pustule that did this.

Martinjmpr

I can’t help but think there’s a LOT more to this story than we’re hearing.

Angry ex-wife? Dispute with a neighbor or co-worker? Someone else who holds a grudge trying to mess with him?

Sadly, we may not hear much from the newspaper since their own embarrassment might make them reluctant to reveal that they were used in a petty revenge scam. Might damage their credibility and/or hurt their advertising revenue.

Tallywhagger

Haha, same here, I’m a natural born skeptic

Mason

I’m with you guys. This smells fishier than Pike Place Market in Seattle.

A fake obit is unusual enough, but to happen concurrently with his ID being hacked is problem number 1.

Problem number 2 is he didn’t report this to the police. If this was such a traumatic experience, and your ID is being stolen, the first call should be to get the investigation started.

Number 3 would be, why is his mom crying if he’s in the same house? Did she really think he’d die in her home and she wouldn’t know of it happening until reading it in the paper a week later?

Doesn’t pass any sniff test.

Comm Center Rat

“Forget the hearse cause I’ll never die
I got nine lives cat’s eyes” ~ Back In Black, AC/DC

26Limabeans

“submitting false information to a publication is a crime”

So all the times I lied to a pollster can get me in trouble?

Not to make light of Staff Sgt. Felgers identity theft but one my favorite games was to read an obituary to my siblings and then have them guess the cause of death. I called it “Name That Death”. They stopped printing the cause when AID’s became common so we switched to Wedding announcemnts and called it “Name That Job”. Most of the time the photos were a major clue.

Tallywhagger

Dan Rather was not immediately available for comment.

J.R. Johnson

Just wondering if the Obituary enabled the malfeasant to gain access to the victims social media and credit history? We may be seeing a lot more of this type of crime if that was the case.

A Proud Infidel®™️

I hope that the little shit who did that gets caught and held accountable.

5th/77th FA

‘Pears like someone is gonna need an azz whuppin..or to be hung!

I don’t socialize with the media either.

What was the Sam Clemens quote? “The news of my demise is a bit mature?” Or words to that effect.

The anonymity of the innerwebz. A double edged sword. If the perp e mailed the notice, should be an electronic trial? Unless, of course, they used Hitlery’s server.

David

“The report of my death was an exaggeration” although it is frequently misquoted.

Ex-PH2

Fake news of death reported to newspaper through an online obituary spot. How convenient for someone with a grudge.

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The text of a cable sent by Mark Twain from London to the press in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published. – source: Dictionary.com

5th/77th FA

Thanks for clearing up the quote MiLady. Could not pull it out of the dark recesses of my stroked out brain cells. Figured you or Hondo would be the FIRST to help me out. Can’t count on The “Pappy” Stranger always. He’s still whimpering cause he knows that Artillery is still THE King of Battle.

The Stranger

Really, Redleg? I was going to post something in your honor. Now I gotta sit down and drink on it!
🤣🧨

Sarge

What is the possiblity he did it himself just to get attention?

Hate to play devil’s advocate here but it’s entirely possible.

Mason

I think it’s more than possible, it’s highly likely.

Charles

I am a criminal defense attorney, so I’m a cynic. It is not unknown for criminal defendants to fake a death for their benefit, as in:

1 – My momma/daddy/aunt/sister, etc. died so I a: need a furlough from jail, b: need my case reset, c: have an excuse for not reporting to my probation officer, etc.
2 – I am “dead” and therefore:
a: Don’t need to be on the Sex Offender Registry any more, b: dont’t need to report to probation/parole anymore, c: my charges must be dismissed, d: I don’t have to pay child support anymore.
Or variations of the above.

Trust, but verify.

Mason

I’m from the CJ side of the aisle and find it comforting to know that you guys don’t even believe their shit. 😉

Tallywhagger

If nothing more, Charles, at least they evince some understanding of the gravity of their crimes and shame.

On the uptick, our wonderful system of justice does provide an opportunity for defense, even for the guilty.

In contrast, being a landlord almost always switches the plaintiff into a defendant by action of bizarre judges hell bent on validating dead-beat no rent paying sons of bitches into victims who do not pay the damned rent.

3/10/MED/b

Does Mommy always go straight to the obituaries?
(Sniff, sniff…)
Somethin’s funky here…

AnotherPat

Sorry…I am skeptic on his story.

Very skeptic.

Very, very skeptic.

In reviewing Virginia Court Records, from 2009-2010, he got in trouble with the Law….

Also suspect he is living at home with his parents because of possible failure to pay rent where he was previously living as well as other bills he had accumalated (according to to Court Records).

Don’t know about the Richmond Times, but personally had to write Obits for family members for newspaper publication and it was not free….cost $$$$.

Time will tell.

justmytwopennies

GDContractor

“It’s almost like another form of stolen valor as far as I’m concerned,” said Turner….

Yes. The coveted Death Medal w/V device.

Or to quote Mr.Wales, “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.”

Daisy Cutter

Or to quote “The Shawshank Redemption” :

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”