{"id":4562,"date":"2026-07-28T23:33:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4562"},"modified":"2026-07-28T23:33:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:33:53","slug":"a-typo-landed-an-innocent-gamer-in-prison-for-18-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4562","title":{"rendered":"A Typo Landed an Innocent Gamer in Prison for 18 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"


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One missing underscore<\/span> in a Skyrim-themed username put an innocent Nova Scotia man in prison for 18 months.<\/p>\n

A 2018 child-luring investigation, which began in Madison, Wisconsin, and eventually extended to Halifax, Canada, was based on a false premise.<\/p>\n

Police were looking for a man using the Kik messaging service under the name \u201cfus__ro_dah\u201d (two underscores after \u201cfus\u201d), but they accidentally requested records for the username \u201cfus_ro_dah\u201d (one underscore after \u201cfus\u201d). This one-character difference led them not to the perpetrator but to a Canadian man named Brandon Klayme.<\/p>\n

(Readers may recognize \u201cfus ro dah\u201d as the Unrelenting Force \u201cdragon shout\u201d<\/a> from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges<\/a>. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term.<\/p>\n

Even after release, Klayme continued to fight his conviction. In the process of preparing his appeal, the username mistake that led to all these years of disruption was finally discovered. On Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned Klayme\u2019s conviction<\/a>, writing: \u201cMr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Underscore<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The case began in 2018. From August through December of that year, a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl communicated with an adult male through the Kik messaging service. During a check of the girl\u2019s phone, her mother found an \u201cinappropriate\u201d photo of the male and called local police.<\/p>\n

The Dane County Sheriff\u2019s Department responded. A deputy took the phone, and the department ran a forensic search on it. The report identified 125 Kik messages between the girl and an adult with the username \u201cfus__ro_dah\u201d (two underscores after \u201cfus\u201d).<\/p>\n

To identify this person, the cops contacted Kik, but their subpoena accidentally requested information about the Kik user \u201cfus_ro_dah\u201d (one underscore after \u201cfus\u201d). Kik provided Klayme\u2019s email address in response.<\/p>\n

Google records showed that this email address was used to access Google services from an IP address in Canada, so the Dane County investigators turned the case over to Halifax Regional Police. Halifax police took the IP address they had been given to local internet provider Bell Aliant. Bell connected the IP address to the physical address of their subscriber, Brandon Klayme.<\/p>\n

The cops then obtained a search warrant for Klayme\u2019s residence and took phones and laptops from his bedroom. Searching these devices produced no evidence relevant to the case. Nothing linked Klayme to the girl. No intimate images were found. Klayme did have a Kik account, but cops couldn\u2019t even show that he had accessed the service during the period in question.<\/p>\n

Still, Klayme was arrested and hit with three charges:<\/p>\n