“I’m currently in prison because of Uber.” That was a direct quote from a lawsuit purportedly written by Jason Dalton, a 45-year-old Uber driver who went on a shooting rampage Feb. 20 that killed six people in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Yesterday, Reuters reported that Dalton had filed a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the company. His reason for filing the lawsuit was apparently that the ride-sharing company “ruined his life” and didn’t invite him to any corporate parties.
The only problem? The lawsuit is fake, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told the Detroit Free Press. “He didn’t send it, didn’t authorized it, and didn’t know who did, either,” Matyas said. “He said he had no knowledge of it.”
That didn’t stop the lawsuit from causing problems in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, the Free Press reports. Lawyers there were trying to figure out what to do about the lawsuit and whether any law had been broken, before they realized it wasn’t even real.
This is one of the weirdest stories so far this year, and it’s a continuation of one of the most tragic stories. Let’s hope the rest of Dalton’s journey to justice is uneventful.