Imagine the shock of coming across your own obituary.
That’s what happened to James Bland, a Los Angeles actor with a pulse, who discovered an obituary last week featuring his photo.
Bland said he got an email from a friend about the obituary, which included his head-shot from five years ago.
“I’m laying in bed on my phone thinking ‘Is this really how I wanna start my day?'” he wrote on Twitter.
Bland said the obituary was sent to the friend’s sister from a co-worker who claimed their “brother” died in a car accident.
“Lying for some paid leave,” Bland said.
But it gets weirder. According to the friend, the co-worker behind the elaborate death sham was a pastor.
Bland was later contacted by the church mentioned in the fake obituary.
Their baffling explanation? The obituary was part of an assignment for a theology and divinity class that the pastor was taking.
The actor said this is not the first time his photo has been misused.
“This happens a lot actually. I’m guessing it’s because when [you] google ‘black man’ my old headshot comes up pretty high on the list,” he wrote on Twitter.