Captain Brock Wagner says his life has turned upside down after being wrongly accused of appearing in a recent viral video on the Peace River in Charlotte County.
“Because we had the first name, people somehow assumed that I was the culprit ... It has been completely a nightmare," said Wagner, a longtime fishing guide based in Chokoloskee.
Wagner shares a first name — and a similar boat — with the man in the viral video, Brock Horner. Horner (in the video) is shown screaming and cursing at a young fisherman, before boarding his boat. Wagner is nearly 20 years older and lives over 100 miles away, but is still receiving internet hate and threats due to the incident.
“We've been getting an awful lot of nasty, threatening emails, text messages, phone calls ... I don't know, 80? Yeah. Maybe more, I don't know," said Wagner.
Wagner tells Gulf Coast News that he even sent his wife away for her own safety.
“My wife is spooked,” he said. “I went to the sheriff’s department yesterday. I was like, look, man, I'm getting threats... and they’re like — it’s the internet, man.”
He’s also watched his business take a hit. His website has gotten bad reviews, and he says the fallout has been overwhelming.
“We got a PR nightmare. You know, what are we going to do? And at first, we were just kind of in shock,” said Wagner.
To clear his name, Wagner posted a statement on his business’s social media pages explaining that he was not involved. He hopes speaking out will allow him to return to normal.
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