George Zimmerman — who you may remember as the man who accosted and then shot a teen named Trayvon Martin for the crime of being black and wearing a hoodie — is in a bad place as the calendar slides towards 2013. Well, you knew that, but here's just one example of the pit that Zimmerman is currently in: he's being sued by a security firm that says he owes them $27,027 for services rendered. The response from Zimmerman and his attorney?
Zimmerman's attorney tells TMZ his client felt "the billing got out of hand quickly. We trusted them to be efficient with their work and they weren't." He claims Zimmerman dropped the security team because of concerns about the bills.
In other words: Zimmerman hired security guards to protect him and they allegedly charged the shit out of him (well, out of his supporters who were footing the bill) before he got the sense to fire them. This development is undeniably satisfying from a schadenfreude perspective, but it's also a comment on the nature of the modern celebrity — and Zimmerman is a celebrity as much as he is a criminal. On account of murdering a black teenager, Zimmerman was thrust into a world that he was never prepared to enter, one that ultimately left him with very few places to hide. Actors and singers hire security guards so they can run errands in relative peace. Zimmerman hired security guards so he could run his without getting killed.
It sounds like a terrible life, but it's better than the alternative fate that befell Trayvon Martin. Though I wonder if Zimmerman has found himself debating that exact conclusion at any point over the last 10 months.
[via TMZ, image via Getty]