78-Year-Old Man Inundated With Death Threats After The George Zimmerman Verdict
The 78-year-old's name closely resembles that of George Zimmerman, who was recently acquitted of second-degree murder for the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
Zimmermann said the calls started the night the verdict came down.
"[They say] if you go out, you're going to be dead. If you do this, you're going to be dead, if you do that ... and I'm just tired of getting these calls," Zimmermann told Orlando news station WKMG. "I don't know what to do about it."
He said he called 911 and has since changed his phone number.
Zimmermann isn't the only one getting death threats intended for the Florida killer.
Florida woman Lori Tankel, whose phone number is one digit off from Zimmerman's, said she's gotten nearly 100 threatening phone calls since the verdict. Someone apparently posted her phone number online thinking it was Zimmerman's.
She called police about the threats, but said they haven't been much help.
"They said they were averaging 400 death threats per minute on social media sites, so what I was getting was just a drop in the bucket," she told WFTV.