A lie about paying a person with COVID to lick groceries in Texas sends man to prison
A Texas man is going to prison after claiming to have paid a person with COVID-19 to lick grocery store items during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities determined the April 2020 social media posts by 40-year-old Christopher Charles Perez were fake, but the San Antonio man’s hoax was still punishable, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas announced Tuesday.
“My homeboys cousin has covid19 and has licked every thing for past 2 days cause we paid him to,” the Facebook post said, according to court documents. “Big difference is we told him not to be these (expletive) idiots who record and post online...YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.”
When an employee at a San Antonio store tested positive for COIVD-19, Perez commented on a news station’s post: “I did try to warn y’all but my homegirl changed my mind,” officials said.
A tipster sent a screenshot of the Facebook posts to authorities, and the FBI started an investigation. When interviewed by police, Perez said the details in his posts were lies.
Perez said he was attempting to deter shoppers from visiting stores to prevent the spread of the virus, according to a news release.
Perez told investigators that he thought too many people continued to shop, and he wanted them to take the pandemic more seriously, according to court documents.
He was charged federally with perpetrating a COVID-19-related hoax and convicted in June when a jury found him guilty, officials said.
Perez faced five years in prison for each of the two counts and ultimately received a 15-month sentence.
“Those who would threaten to use COVID-19 as a weapon against others will be held accountable for their actions, even if the threat was a hoax,” FBI San Antonio Division Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs said in the release. “Perez’s actions were knowingly designed to spread fear and panic and today’s sentencing illustrates the seriousness of this crime.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 4:33 PM with the headline "A lie about paying a person with COVID to lick groceries in Texas sends man to prison."