[h=1]Mistaken identity brings threats to Pastor Zimmermann[/h]Death threats were the last type of phone calls George A. Zimmermann, 78, thought he'd get after serving for 55 years as his Pennsylvania community's preacher.
On June 25, Zimmermann was awakened by two calls in the middle of the night from protesters, although he says they were tame in comparison with the one he received July 14, a day after the verdict was reached.
"Hey (expletive), you're the one who killed Trayvon Martin, when your (expletive) get out, you're dead," the caller said in a message left on the answering machine. "Wherever you go, you're dead. Wherever you're trying to hide, you're dead. Watch your (expletive) move. You think you're free. You're not. You better get ready to dig a 6-foot hole, cause you know you're fixing to go," according to
a report by Daytona news station WFVT.
Zimmermann, who was not home at the time of the call, recorded the message on his answering machine. He reported the incident to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Zimmermann says a couple of the calls he's received have been from out-of-state numbers, but more have been from Florida. He has changed his phone number, and since July 14, he has not received any more intimidating calls.
Since Trayvon was killed, a number of individuals with unintentional ties to Zimmerman have been accosted in similar cases of mistaken identity:
• A Florida man who had never owned a cellphone before being released from prison in May 2012
was randomly assigned the number Zimmerman was using when he called 911 the night he killed Trayvon. Junior Alexander Guy, then 49, received multiple intimidating phone calls before changing his number.
• Lori Tankel of Winter Park, Fla., was forced to change her number after receiving nearly 100 calls from protesters assuming she was Zimmerman,
reports Florida news station WFTV. Her cellphone number was one digit removed from Zimmerman's old number.
• Although he lived thousands of miles away from Sanford, Jorge Zimmerman of Cumberland, R.I., received nearly half a dozen or so angry messages sent to his Facebook page from individuals accusing him of murdering Trayvon,
says Rhode Island news station WPRI. He has deactivated his Facebook account.