diff --git a/app/models/status_message.rb b/app/models/status_message.rb
index c71856ec4..254bbaf0b 100644
--- a/app/models/status_message.rb
+++ b/app/models/status_message.rb
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ class StatusMessage < Post
 
   def create_mentions
     mentioned_people_from_string.each do |person|
-      self.mentions.create(:person => person)
+      self.mentions.find_or_create_by_person_id(person.id)
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb b/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
index e9ab1b5e6..a11e075fc 100644
--- a/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
@@ -199,6 +199,14 @@ STR
         @sm.create_mentions
         @sm.mentions(true).map{|m| m.person}.to_set.should == @people.to_set
       end
+
+      it 'does not barf if it gets called twice' do
+        @sm.create_mentions
+
+        expect{
+          @sm.create_mentions
+        }.should_not raise_error
+      end
     end
     describe '#mentioned_people' do
       it 'calls create_mentions if there are no mentions in the db' do