Feds: Chinese student who voted in MI election fled US
The documents provide details on how 19-year-old University of Michigan student Haoxiang Gao managed to leave the U.S. despite surrendering his Chinese passport and agreeing to stay in Michigan while on bond.
The case was unsealed seven months after authorities revealed that a student who wasn't a U.S. citizen had cast a ballot for the presidential election at an early voting site in Ann Arbor.
Gao cast his ballot in late October, but then reportedly contacted the local clerk, asking if he could somehow get his ballot back.
University investigators spoke with Gao the next day. An FBI agent wrote in the criminal case that Gao admitted to casting a vote. Law enforcement charged Gao with perjury on Nov. 8, 2024 — a charge that carries a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Gao surrendered one Chinese passport but used a second one issued in his name to board a Delta flight leaving from Detroit to Shanghai on Jan. 19. It was unclear how he obtained the second passport.
'We have authorized his extradition from anywhere in the world, and remain committed to prosecuting the case to the fullest extent of the law,' Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said, according to the .
By fleeing the country, Gao is now being additionally charged with flight to avoid prosecution, a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison, on top of possible prison time for his other charges.
In April, a review by the Michigan Secretary of State's office identified 15 non-U.S. citizens who cast ballots in the November election, the Detroit News .
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Reddit user u/deadmoby5 posed the question, "What was your 'Sir, this is a Wendy's' moment?" which prompted hundreds of people, including BuzzFeed Community members, to share their stories of clueless customers catching an attitude and people genuinely not having any idea what they were doing. I have so much secondhand embarrassment. Here's what they shared: 1."I work at a museum gift shop. I once had a lady come in asking to be seated for four people, thinking we were a restaurant famous for chicken dinners. I explained what we were, and she's looking for the place four doors down. She immediately got PISSED at me, saying I was hiding the chicken from her and that she was positive she ate here last year when they were in town (even though our museum had existed for about 40 years at this point, so that was not possible). It took her several minutes to leave, and even then, she still didn't believe that we weren't a chicken restaurant, despite having the word museum on our building and not a dead fried bird in sight." —thegassygoose 2."I used to work at a well-established paint-your-own-pottery studio with the word 'bakers' in the name — think, 'The Pottery Bakers.' Our windows were FILLED with pottery for sale, and the walls were lined with white bisque to be painted. A woman came in and asked: 'Do you have any baguettes?' Me: 'Baguettes?' Her: 'What else do you have?' I looked around at the full room of people in smocks painting pottery, then looked back at her. Her with bizarre urgency: 'Do you have any bread available?' Me: 'Ma'am, we are a pottery studio. We bake pottery. I do not have any bread.' The next day, she left us a one-star review claiming that our store name was deliberately misleading so that we could lure people in to visit under the 'false pretenses' of being a bakery of breads." —u/causa_sui 3."I worked at Sam's Club during the height of the pandemic. The toilet paper wars were raging, and every beef and pork product had been out of stock for days. I was the rotisserie chicken guy, so basically the only money-maker in the meat department. I was performing the never-ending grease cleaning routine that took up my time while the chickens cooked, and a dude in his 50s or 60s frantically came up to me and asked, 'WHAT SIZE UNDERWEAR AM I WEARING?!' Before I could respond, he turned around and flipped the elastic band of his tighty-whities at me. He was a medium. He thanked me and speed-walked toward the clothing section. I guess men's underwear was in danger of disappearing that day." —u/tuckerx78 4."When I was about 12 or 13, I saved up my allowance and neighborhood yard work money to finally afford the newest iPod, the one that could play videos as well. I wanted to make sure they had it at the store before I got my parents to drive me there, so I opened the phone book, found the Apple Store, and called them. Guy at Apple Store: 'Hello?' Me: 'Hi, do you have the iPod Video in stock?' Guy: ' is an apple store. crunch?' I had called the gift shop at an apple orchard." —u/GroggyWanderer Related: 5."Many years ago, I worked as a pharmacy tech for a big chain. One day, this lady came up to the counter and asked me if I could help her. She reached into her purse, grabbed a bag, and opened it for me to see. I looked in and saw a bag full of bugs — many dead, but a few moving. She goes on to tell me that she 'found' these bugs in her car, home, food, hair, and inside her (whatever that means). I quickly realized this was above my pay grade, so I called my pharmacist for a consultation. I hid and eavesdropped on their conversation. My pharmacist told her we're a pharmacy, and she needed to call an exterminator." —u/TenLate 6."When I worked at McDonald's, someone came in and demanded steak. It was a McDonald's. He demanded to see a manager, who helpfully informed him this was a McDonald's. 'I can get steak at Taco Bell!' he claimed. Then go to Taco Bell?" —u/joy3111 7."I worked at Best Buy. I was part of Geek Squad, with a counter adjoining Customer Service, and I heard this whole thing go down. A lady comes in irate about her laptop being slow (it's a netbook, so yeah, it sucks). Our CS manager is there, and she's going through the ringer trying to find this lady's receipt. She checked every card, every name, every phone number. Finally, CS is like, 'If you know the day you bought it, I can search the cash receipts, but it would have to be from this store.' The lady goes, 'Oh, I didn't buy it here.' CS says, 'OK, which Best Buy did you get it from?' The lady says, 'I got it at Walmart.' CS says, 'You can't return something you bought at Walmart to Best Buy.' The lady goes, 'What do you mean? You're the same store!'" —venkmanphd 8."I worked in an ice cream shop when I was 16/17, and I had a lady scream at us, demanding a refund because her ice cream was melting too fast. She had ordered hot fudge on it." —u/fuzzbeebs 9."I work for a CPA office in an office park with a couple of doctors' offices. One day, a guy came in, only speaking Spanish, so I grabbed my Spanish-speaking colleague to translate. He talked to the guy in the lobby for a few minutes, then the guy left, and my coworker came back and asked if that was a joke or if we put someone up to that. Apparently, the guy explained that his testicles were extremely swollen and painful. He was looking for one of the doctors' offices and just walked into the first building in the complex. Sir, we do taxes here, not testicles." —u/AlternativeAcademia 10."A guy came into my liquor store and asked if we could help change his tire. We didn't change his tire, and he left one real angry online review." —u/Bog2ElectricBoogaloo 11."Had a guy come into my place of work, ticked off because he issued his payment date and had to pay extra to turn his phone back on. He said something along the lines of, 'It was due at midnight, and y'all aren't open at midnight, so how was I supposed to pay?' I calmly explained that we are open until 7:00 p.m. every day but Sunday, and he screamed, 'Well, unlike you, I actually have a job!' At my job. Whilst doing my job." —u/lordgabe92again Related: 12."I worked in a national park. I was asked when we turn the geysers on. I was also asked when we let the bears out for viewing. Ma'am, this isn't an amusement park." —u/IntoTheMystic8 13."My brother was working at Chick-fil-A in the drive-thru. A guest asked for a Whopper with cheese. My brother said, 'Ma'am, this isn't a Burger King. We only have chicken sandwiches.' She started screaming at him and asked why he couldn't just make it. He told her they didn't have beef anywhere in the store. She wouldn't take no for an answer, and the manager had to come out." –u/Accomplished_Cow_662 14."A woman came into our store and asked where the carrots were. We thought maybe it was a new brand we hadn't heard of yet, so we asked her to clarify. 'Carrots, like for cooking,' she said. I wonder what part of walking into an electronics store and seeing computers everywhere made her go, 'Yeah, this store definitely has produce somewhere.'" —u/s317sv17vnv 15."This barbershop in my local mall closed down and was replaced with a place that sold stained glass lamps and figurines/mini fountains. My husband did not realize this and still insisted on entering the shop and asking for a haircut, even though you could clearly see it was no longer a barber shop, and I told him as much. He thought the barber chairs must just be in the back, and the front of the store was just a gift shop, for some reason. I refused to enter the store with him on this quest, out of embarrassment, and now, 10 years later, it's still something we laugh about. He's never done anything like that before or since, so I don't know what switch turned off in his brain in that moment." —jainelaine 16."When I worked for a Verizon call center, I used to have so many of these stories. The only one I can remember is when it took me over five minutes to convince a man that I could do nothing about power lines being down near his house. He apparently even had a separate landline service that did actually run lines in his neighborhood, but no, he was adamant that his cellphone carrier could just get that fixed. People also somehow believed that all tech support lines are the same, and seemed disappointed that we couldn't help them fix major appliances." "The weirdest things I get now are the occasional people convinced that a pharmacy located in a grocery store can sell them mobility power chairs or just give them antibiotics without a prescription. Maybe somewhere in the world, my guy, but that's literally never been a thing in the US medical system." —jeffg4c54ea76d Related: 17."I had someone call my fire station and ask us to come fill up her pool. Her: 'I need you to come and fill up my pool, please.' Me: 'Uh, ma'am, we do not do that. We are a fire department.' Her: 'Well, who am I supposed to call to have my pool filled up? You guys have the water trucks.' Me: 'I am not totally sure, ma'am, but once again, we are a fire department. Our fire engines use their water for emergencies, not to fill pools.' Her: 'Well, my taxes pay for your salary and vehicles, so you need to come fill up my pool!' Me: 'I am sorry, but we cannot do that. Have a good day, ma'am.' It was ridiculous and hilarious. I could not believe the entitlement!" —u/OneHornyReddit 18."I work as a law clerk for a judge, and a scammer called my chambers, doing the classic 'I'm trying to reach the property owner for blah blah blah because you might be entitled to a government tax rebate.' I responded: 'This is the 15th Division of the First Circuit Court. You know that, right?' He hung up immediately." —u/Rodby 19."I was an associate working in the Cracker Barrel store, and a woman came in and was interested in one of our lamps. It was $100. She offered me $30 for it, and I told her I could only sell it at the ticketed price. She offered to go up to $50. I told her again that I could only sell it at the ticketed price. Her response: 'You need to be willing to negotiate. That's how flea markets work.' And then I had to explain, politely because she was a customer, that we were a regular retail store and not, in fact, a flea market. It took more explaining than it should have. She did not buy the lamp." —u/MidnighyAmethyst23 20."While working at Ulta, there was a guy in the store for, like, 10 minutes waiting while I tried to find something his girlfriend had put on hold, only to realize he meant to go to the shoe store next door. Until I asked him what his girlfriend had wanted and he said, 'Shoes,' he never once stopped to think about the fact that there was nothing even remotely resembling a shoe for sale in the entire store." —u/TarMiriel 21."I worked at Walmart for a long time in the hardware department. I once had a customer call asking if we sold toilets. I said, 'Like, toilet seats?' He said, 'No, like actual toilets.' So I said, 'Sorry, we just sell the seats and replacement parts — no porcelain.' He got all huffy and said, 'Jesus, what is this place? Walmart??' I paused momentarily and said, 'Yes, sir, it is.' Silence for a long moment. Then, he said, in a little voice, 'This isn't Home Depot?' 'No, sir, you called Walmart.' 'Oh crap, I am so sorry!' He hung up. I laughed my butt off." —u/StarBabyEleven 22."Had a guy INSIST that I made his sweet teas wrong yesterday. He said he had the cups from the day before to prove it. I work at Starbucks. This man pulls up to my window and confidently sets down two half-full McDonald's sweet teas. Sir, this is a Starbucks." —u/siouxxsiee 23."I was sitting in the waiting lounge of the service department at my car dealership getting an oil change when a red-faced man THREW the door open and stormed up to the service desk. He immediately started shouting and swearing about how he was sick and tired of the dealership and their crappy ways. He said: 'If I had known what a terrible business this was, I would've never bought a Volkswagen. I'm sorry I ever bought it.' The service advisor looked at him and said, 'The VW dealership is next door. This is a NISSAN dealership.' The man stood there for a second, processing. Then, he just let out a ROAR and ran out the door. Everyone looked at each other with wide eyes." —u/Javaman1960 24."I worked at a gas station when I was 19. People called to ask about the lottery, gas prices, etc. I always said the same thing when I answered, to make sure they knew which of our locations they had called, because there were quite a few nearby, and people got them mixed up. 'Thank you for calling [gas station] in [town]. My name is [name]. How can I help you today?' The phone rings. I recite my lines. The person asked, 'What do I need to get a library card?' I was perplexed, but I had literally just gotten one a week earlier, so technically, I did know. 'Um, I mean, when I got mine, I needed to show ID, but then I also needed a current piece of mail to reflect my current address.' A pause, as she recognized my confusion. 'Is this not the library in [town 45 MINUTES AWAY]?' 'No, this is a gas station.'" —ghcstxbcy Related: 25."I worked to-go at Ruby Tuesday, and countless people came in yelling about their food. These were my favorite two: 1. A man was PISSED we didn't have his food ready and just immediately started yelling at me. I politely asked what he ordered and said I'd get it ready ASAP. He started listing menu items we don't have, and on a hunch, I said, 'Did you mean to go to Applebees?' He said, 'Yeah. Where am I?' 'Not Applebees,' I said. 2. A guest was mad about their order, which we didn't have any record of, and swore up and down that they spoke to someone on the phone to confirm. I asked for the phone number he called to confirm. He called a city in Colorado with the same name. We were in Maryland. Neither one apologized." —google_118227220763140986694 26."A lady I used to work with was sent to go get breakfast for the office. She was told to go to McDonald's and get a bunch of sausage biscuits or something. She goes through the drive-thru and orders. The price was over $100, and she didn't think that was quite right, so she finally put it together that she was not, in fact, at McDonald's. She was at Starbucks. She never goes to Starbucks as it is, but they were also pretty far apart and don't look even remotely similar. It was pretty funny." —jelyselauren 27."I used to work for Kmart. Someone came into the store and wanted to know where the pet department was located. We only had one aisle of pet items, and it was mostly items for dogs and cats (food, litter, toys, etc.). I took the customer to the aisle, and they said, 'This is it? This is all you have for pet supplies? You don't have an actual department, like other stores?' I said, 'Yes, sir. We just carry the basics. If you need a bigger selection, there is a Pet Supplies Plus located at the other end of the plaza.' The customer got upset and said, 'But if I wanted to go to Pet Supplies Plus, I would have gone there. But I wanted to go to Kmart. So, I'm guessing you don't have fish food or anything like that?' I showed him the same selection of fish food, and he got upset." "He then started asking for advice on fish tanks, and again, I directed him to the Pet Supplies Plus that was located just a couple of storefronts down from Kmart. When he insisted on not going to that store, I gave him directions to two other pet stores in the area. Eventually, he left, but not before saying, 'This is why Kmart is going out of business!' Sure, buddy, the lack of a pet department is the sole reason Kmart is going out of business." —u/DannyC990 28."I was working at McDonald's, and this lady said, 'Can I get the Wendy's 4 for 4?' I said, 'Ma'am, this is a McDonald's,' and without a moment's hesitation, she replied, 'Indeed it is. Can I get a Big Mac?'" —u/lukemercer 29."I used to work at Ulta, and I had someone get super upset that I couldn't sell them a Sephora gift card. Even after explaining in multiple ways that we were two different companies, they were convinced I was just refusing them because I could. It was bizarre." —u/TarMiriel 30."My husband asks for a Whopper every time we go to Whataburger, and it never fails to crack me up. 💀 I just let him do it too because it is so genuine and I love hearing them say they don't do Whoppers there, LOL." —kimbabe20 "I was in Lowe's one morning right after they opened. A woman at the service desk was having a complete meltdown, yelling and screaming because Lowe's didn't have a licensed contractor there at the store for her to hire. She apparently woke up that morning and decided she needed a deck that same day, and she thought she could just go to Lowe's and have someone start building a deck immediately. It was dead, so I stood with the cashier listening to the show. They had to call the police to get her to leave." —u/DasGoat Have you ever witnessed (or had your own) "Sir, this is a Wendy's" moment? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Solve the daily Crossword
