Text Message Typo Leads to Murder
Neil Brook, a 33-year-old currently on trial for murder in Manchester, England, says that he was forced to stab his neighbor Josef Witkowski to death over a misspelled text message. Yes, I know! Here is Brook's version of events:
- 1. Brook sends Witkowski an SMS containing the word "mutter." The phone's predictive text software changes it to "nutter."
- 2. Enraged by the text, Witkowski sends "a series of increasingly abusive messages" to Brook.
- 3. Witkowski comes to Brook's home wielding a knife.
- 4. But! Brook had, "in advance of [Witkowski's] visit... taped two large knives around his flat—on the door and near his bathroom."
- 5. Brook stabs Witkowski to death.
So, yes, this is perhaps not the most likely scenario in the world, given that, for example, what possible text message containing the word "mutter" would then be transformed into an insult if it were changed to "nutter"? But, on the other hand, fucking autocorrect, am I right? So, who knows.