He created a 'RentaHitman' website for class project as a joke. But then police got involved after the site got a slew of inquiries from people wanting to actually pay for a hitman
- A California man, Bob Innes, said he accidentally created a hitman-for-hire website, per People Magazine.
- Innes and his friends made the site to start a computer security business in 2005.
A California man said that at least 30 people have been arrested after inquiring about hiring a hitman on his parody website, according to PEOPLE.
Bob Innes, along with his friends, created the website while participating in an IT program at a California business school in 2005, the outlet reported. They made the site with the intention of starting a computer security company — and chose the quippy domain "RentAHitman.com."
"Rent as in hire us," Innes told PEOPLE. "Hit as in network traffic, and men, because there were four of us. We thought it was funny."
Although the website was live, the group did not officially start the company, according to the report. Three years later, Innes decided to log back in and discovered a slew of inquiries.
According to the report, some people were asking for the price, while others were seeking employment.
"There was even a female out of the UK who wanted to learn the business so that she could be a hitwoman," the 54-year-old told the publication.
That's when Innes realized that he had unintentionally set up a website for those seeking to hire a hitman, PEOPLE reported. Innes told the magazine that he decided up the humor by adding phony testimonials and awards.
When a potential customer reaches out for their "services," he waits a day to reach back out to them. After they show interest in hiring a hitman, he connects them with an "operative," which happens to be one of the thousands of police departments across the country, per the report.
The website has resulted in more than two dozen arrests and a number of convictions, including a woman who reached out in 2010 about murdering her family members, according to the outlet.