So, it wasn’t Ross, but then, could it have been Russ?
No one told him his day was gonna go that way. Actor David Schwimmer, best known for playing Ross Geller on the American sitcom Friends, jokingly protested his innocence with a witty video after police in Britain asked the public to identify a grocery store thief — the man in the security camera photo, seen holding a crate of beer, bore an uncanny resemblance to the Hollywood star.
Police in Blackpool found their Facebook feed inundated this week with replies and merriment after they posted an image of the man and his (most likely stolen) beer. FB users quickly noticed that the wanted man was the spitting image of Schwimmer. Cue a plethora of amusing, if not particularly helpful, Friends-related puns on the police page.
And, of course, there were references to the character named Russ, who became the date of Rachel Green (played by Jennifer Aniston), while she was trying to get over losing Ross. And Russ also happened to be a lookalike of Ross. What more could be needed for users to have a field day on FB?
“Come on guys it’s a serious robbery, it’s not that common, it doesn’t happen to every guy and it is a big deal,” wrote Aliciaa Heathcock. “It’s not Ross ..... It’s Russ, he’s trying to frame Ross to win back Rachel,” posted Rachel Louise Hutchinson. Others opted to recast the show’s famously catchy theme tune.
Police in Blackpool cleared Schwimmer of any suspicion. And the actor also posted a video on his Twitter page, showing him in a US store... carrying off a crate of beers.
“Officers, I swear it wasn’t me,” he quipped on his post. “As you can see, I was in New York. To the hardworking Blackpool Police, good luck with the investigation.”
The police thanked him on their own page.