This is a strange one: a man buys a new phone and, when he activates it, it logs him in to a deceased man's Facebook account.

Ricky Fields purchased a new phone recently, and when he opened it to use his Facebook account, it was posting as someone named James David Jackson, Jr of Duson. No big deal, right? Well, it wasn't a big deal until Jackson's friends and family started seeing posts under their deceased relative's name. Then they got angry.

-Jackson 1 via Facebook
-Jackson 1 via Facebook
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When Fields (posting as James D Jackson Jr) realized that his posts were coming up as Jackson, he thought that someone was messing with HIS account.  He posted "I don't know why or how your (sic) under my name but I'm getting to the bottom (of this)."

Think about it: imagine your friend or relative passes away and then, just a few months later, you see NEW posts from his account. Creepy, no?

Jackson's cousin comments "Who is this? My cousin passed away, why am I seeing messages come up from him?". A friend of the deceased who obviously wasn't aware of his death responded to the cousin's message by asking "did James D Jackson Jr pass away or no?", and then had questions about the cause of death.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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After a little back and forth, the cousin shared Jackson's obituary.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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More people chimed in on the situation, including someone who was obviously a very good friend to Jackson. One person even accused Fields of dirty deeds, saying that "god will get you" for using Jackson's account.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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That last post tugged at my heart. "I struggle every day with his death he was my best friend".

I still can't imagine seeing posts on Facebook from someone who, I thought, was dead. Just. Too. Creepy.

Fields, after reading some of the posts on the page, began to realize what was happening. While still posting under Jackson's account, he offered up his name AND HIS PHONE NUMBER. He begged for any one of Jackson's friends or family members to contact him so that he could explain, offering to go to Facebook and try to make it right.

Another of Jackson's friends who, obviously, wasn't too impressed with Fields' use of the account, suggested that Fields change his phone number since "James is just not ready to give up his number". (Um, I mean, James is gone and has no need for the number, but I understand your grief.)

via Facebook
via Facebook
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It's obvious to me that Ricky Fields is sincere in that he was just as much an innocent victim in this whole fiasco as the deceased, as he says "I'll do everything in my power to get to the bottom of this all die (sic, no pun intended, I'm sure) respect far (sic) the diecesed (sic) gentman (again, sic).

Once Fields realized what happened, he made another post (again, under Jackson's account) to explain what happened.

It appears that Fields purchased a brand new phone, but was assigned Jackson's old number. When he went to sign into Facebook, it gives him access to BOTH Facebook accounts!

He again apologized to friends and family, and promises to stay logged out for 24 hours until the issue is rectified.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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Jackson's sister was VERY understanding, but others were still upset at seeing yet another post from Jackson's account.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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It appears that Jackson's former partner was pretty upset at seeing his account active again (which is understandable after being together for 15 years!). The former partner even assumed that Jackson's old phone had been sold.

via Facebook
via Facebook
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Jackson's sister, again, comes to his defense and thanks him for trying to rectify the problem. Then, Fields posts something that was very touching:

"I know one thing," he says, "I wish I would (have) known this guy".  Fields, after reading all of the comments about Jackson, came to the conclusion that Jackson was a real stand-up guy. He said that his mother taught him that when a person dies, you can tell how good of a person they were by not how much money or valuables they owned, but by how many people cared for them. And, as Fields said in this case: "Wow!".

One of Jackson's friends chimes in: "He was one of a kind. I worked with him and he had the best work ethics."

I hope that Fields was able to finally get his own account back and let Jackson rest in peace. I also hope that Jackson's friends are able to let this go and not hold it against Fields!

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