Thief identified by British police – and this is not David Schwimmer

Jennifer Hassan, the Washington Post

published

8:39 PDT, Friday, October 26, 2018

LONDON – Some would say that it is not the day, the week, the month or even the year of David Schwimmer.

More than 10 years after bidding farewell to Ross Geller, his beloved character of "Friends," the actor has found himself at the center of a social media storm this week after being closely linked to a crime on British soil.

"Do you recognize this man?" Blackpool police asked Tuesday on social media. "We want to tell him about a robbery at a Blackpool restaurant on September 20th," he said. Thousands of people who quickly identified the man in question quickly answered the simple question. For them it was simple, the suspect was clearly Ross Geller.

While some speculated that the pilot's escape was "stuck in second gear", others thought of the other characters in the series, Rachel and Monica, who would certainly not be impressed by Ross's latest blunder , prone to accidents.

"The one where Ross became a thief," wrote a fan, much to the delight of thousands of people, giving the event its own title in the style of the hit series.

Declared by some as "Facebook 's publication of the year, the responses were a particular genre of comedy. On Wednesday, the call had gathered more than 79,000 shares and more than 120,000 comments. The news finally reached Schwimmer.

The man in question, who was filmed filming a beer affair, is wanted for a theft at a restaurant last month. On Thursday, Blackpool police consulted social media to confirm that they had identified the man in the pictures. The man has not yet been arrested.

"Can we be more overwhelmed by the response to our call for CCTV after a robbery at a restaurant in Blackpool? More importantly, we are now pleased to have identified the man in the still and our investigations are continuing – a huge thank you for sharing it with your friends, "wrote the Blackpool police on Twitter.

Detective David Wilson of the Blackpool Police said Friday: "We would like to thank the audience for the huge response we received from this call, thanks to the image-like man resembling an actor of the famous sitcom "Friends". "We can see the humorous side of this, but for us too, calls of this type on social media have a goal of maintaining order. In this case, it helps us to find the man on the picture and to seek justice from the victim.

"We have been overwhelmed by tens of thousands of comments on our call to Facebook and some of them have provided us with some positive lines of research we are looking at." If you have information that could help us, contact us. "

Schwimmer was amused to use his personal social media accounts Wednesday to deny any involvement in the crime, writing:

"Officers, I swear it's not me … I was in New York … Good luck to the Blackpool Police, who is conducting the investigation." Itwasntme "

While many comments focused on Ross's most iconic scenes, some people resisted remembering their favorite everyday moments, "Friends". One user, channeling another character, Joey Tribbiani, often inarticulate, wrote:

"Guys, it's serious … It was a robbery based on giving and receiving as well as having and sharing. And the stolen items what they give and what they have are shared and received, and thanks to that, having and giving and sharing and receiving, we too can share and love and have … and receive. "

"Please, approach with caution." He is known to have studied karate and we believe that he has mastered Unagi's art, the state of total consciousness. "wrote another, referring to the popular episode in which Ross makes dubious comments about sushi and self-defense.

It's not the first time that a police call looking for information on social media is taking an unexpected turn. In 2015, the Kent Police in England was mocked after sharing the design of a wanted suspect who looked strangely like Fred Flintstone. "Yabba-dabba does not approach," reads a warning of the time.