Bob Dylan is a legendary singer-songwriter and charter member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, but to one culturally untutored 22-year-old police officer in Long Branch, New Jersey, he was just an eccentric, suspicious-looking elderly man.
After police received a call that an “old, scruffy man” was acting suspiciously in Long Branch’s Latin Quarter, a 22-year-old female officer stopped Dylan and demanded that he identify himself. Dylan complied and explained that he was visiting the seaside community to perform at a concert with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Not believing his story, the officer detained Dylan in the back of her car and drove back to his hotel to investigate his story.
“She took him back to the hotel to check his papers, then she called us to check who Bob Dylan was,” police officer Craig Spencer told the London Daily Mail. “I’m afraid we fell about laughing. If it was me, I’d have been demanding his autograph, not photo ID.”
“I offered to bring in some of my Dylan albums,” continued Spencer, “but unfortunately [the young officer] didn’t know what vinyl is either.”
3:49 pm on August 14, 2009
