An innocent Halifax man spent a year and a half behind bars on child sex charges after a cop made a typo when requesting evidence.
As reported by Ars Technica, the saga began in 2018 when a Wisconsin mother discovered her 12-year-old daughter communicating with an adult male through the Kik messaging service and saw an “inappropriate” photo.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Department investigated and searched her phone, revealing 125 Kik messages between the girl and an adult with the username “fus__ro_dah” (a reference to popular video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). The cops contacted Kik and, in doing so, omitted a single keystroke that changed Klayme’s life.
One little typo and a man’s life is ruined
An innocent man spent 18 months in prison because police misread his Skyrim user name https://t.co/dcpZHhSJIK
— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) July 29, 2026
The cops wanted information about user “fus__ro_dah”, but accidentally requested user information for “fus_ro_dah”, omitting a single “_”. That led them to Klayme’s door, who had absolutely nothing to do with the messages.
Klayme was arrested in 2020 and charged with luring a person under 14 years of age by means of telecommunication, providing sexually explicit material to a child, and possession of child pornography
He had to wait three years for a trial in 2023, was convicted, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He served the full term.
Klayme protested his innocence throughout and, during the appeals process, the error was finally spotted. This was pointed out to prosecutors, who then dropped their opposition to Klayme’s appeal and allowed it.
The court went on to admit that had the cops’ request been submitted correctly, it “would have identified an individual whose first name is Jay whose IP address appears to be in California.” Klayme has now been acquitted of all charges, saying:
“In the latter stages of preparing my appeal arguments, it was discovered that the subpoena contained a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life. Instead of requesting details for the username “fus__ro_dah”, the subpoena requested details for the username “fus_ro_dah”. The police officer did not notice that the perpetrator’s Kik username “fus__ro_dah” contains a double underscore. This discrepancy went completely unnoticed at the trial. It was never brought to the attention of the trial judge.”
It is unclear whether Klayme will be seeking compensation for this mistake, and also whether the man who was in contact with the Wisconsin girl can now be prosecuted. The Dane County Sheriff’s Department has not made any official comment on the story.
In a similar case, a Texas teen wrongly jailed as a pedophile at age 19 was left “traumatized” by his experience behind bars, and in New York three men spent almost 40 years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit.
