Man emails 246 women named Nicole to find the one he met in a bar

It’s a tale as old as time: boy meets girl in bar, girl gives boy phone number, turns out to be wrong number, boy emails every girl by the same name at her university to find her.

In the case of Carlos Zetina and the object of his quest, there was a happy (and surprisingly non-creepy) ending - both for them, and for the hundreds of Nicoles he contacted in the process.

Last Thursday, the pair met in a bar in Calgary, Canada, seemingly hitting it off over a discussion about Nietzsche (classic ‘first encounter’ chat, y’know).

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Nicole gave the young man what she thought was her phone number, but it turned out to be someone else's. Unluckily for Carlos, he didn’t know her surname, meaning a quick Facebook search was out of the question. 

The only information he had was her university and her home country, so rather than put their missed connection down to bad luck or a polite blow-off, he took matters into his own hands.

Carlos sent an email to everyone in the University of Calgary’s directory with the name Nicole, or a variation of it, such as Nikki or Nicolette. The 246 recipients included several professors.

As you might imagine, the 247 Nicoles who hadn’t met a Carlos in a bar the previous night were rather bemused to receive the email, with many sharing screenshots on social media.

Because Carlos hadn't used the bcc function, they could also see just how long the list of recipients was. One Nicole hit 'reply all', jokingly suggesting, “Should we all tell him that we're his Nicole, all 250 of us?”

From there, a Facebook group called “Nicole from last night” was born, amassing almost 100 Nicoles and variations thereof.

The group has since taken their new-formed friendship out into the real world, arranging a meet-up at a local bar. Photos of soon circulated on Twitter, with the back-story spreading plenty of cheer and amusement.

The birth of "the Congress of Nicoles" isn’t the only silver lining to emerge from Carlos and Nicole's fateful encounter.

The “real” Nicole eventually stepped forward and identified herself as an exchange student, assuring the rest of the group that she hadn't given Carlos the wrong number as a way to brush him off.

"She told me it was a total accident, she had only had a Canadian number for about a week so it was a mistake, she wanted to give him her real number," one of the Nicoles told The Toronto Star

Incredibly, it seems she was probably the only Nicole from her university not to receive the mass email.

“Don’t have a [University of Calgary] email so didn’t get the beautiful email myself, but the powerful network of Nicoles helped me get in touch hahaha,” she posted in the Facebook group.

We’re willing to put money on the fact there’s a TV or film executive bidding for the rights to this story right this minute.