The New York Police Department used a picture of a social media influencer on a “wanted” poster and is now facing a $30 million lawsuit from the Queens woman, New York Post reports.
On Aug. 3, a man used an online site to book an escort who he accused of stealing from his East Village apartment. He accused the escort of stealing a $13,000 Rolex and Chase credit card from the man’s roommate.
While creating the wanted flyer, the police department used a picture of Eva Lopez wearing a hot pink tube top, gold chain, multi-colored leggings and heels.
When Lopez and her boyfriend were making their way back to New York from Florida, a friend of Lopez sent her a text message of the wanted poster, 1010 Wins reports.
“I thought it was something fake. I really couldn’t believe the police would put me on a wanted poster,” Lopez said.
She contacted Detective Kevin Dwyer, and he recognized “it was an issue before she called.”
Dwyer told Lopez the department removed the poster from its Facebook page and other websites.
The victim allegedly showed police Lopez’s Instagram pictures and identified her as the suspect.
“On Facebook, the [wanted poster] got shared over thousands of times — 10,000, 20,000 times. Then on Instagram, many blog sites with millions of followers posted it as well,” Lopez, a bartender and fashion influencer with 862,000 Instagram followers, said.
“The NYPD should commit to more thorough investigations before haphazardly accusing and identifying innocent people of fantastic lies and brazen crimes,” her lawyer Mark Shirian, who theorized that the escort used pictures of Lopez from social media, said.
Lopez maintains her innocence and said her reputation took a massive blow.
“People didn’t think I was being honest,” she said, according to the New York Post. “It was just really, really embarrassing, not only for me but for my family as well.”
“I just really want people to know that’s not me, in any way, shape, or form. The girl has nothing to do with me,” she added.