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Like a complete unknown: Bob Dylan frogmarched to collect ID after rookie policewoman fails to recognise scruffy music legend


Back in 1965 Bob Dylan sang: 'How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown?'

Now, 44 years later, the world-famous musician got his answer when he was stopped by a police officer who didn't know who he was.

The 22-year-old officer asked the 'eccentric-looking old man' for identification papers after stopping him in the U.S. seaside town of Long Branch, New Jersey.

Not recognising his name, the officer ordered him into the back of her police car, driving him back to his hotel to check his story.

It was not until she radioed her colleagues at the station to ask who he was, did she learn of her error.

The 68-year-old singer had been in town for a concert with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.

He was taking an afternoon stroll through the town’s Latin quarter when town's police station received a call complaining that a man was acting suspiciously.

Police officer Craig Spencer said: 'Residents called to complain there was an old scruffy man acting suspiciously.

'It was an odd request because it was mid-afternoon, but it’s an ethnic Latin area and the residents felt the man didn’t fit in. Lets just say he looked eccentric.

'We dispatched a young woman officer. She is 22 and unfortunately she had no idea who Bob Dylan was.

'He was on a walkabout but she wasn’t entirely convinced of his innocence.

'She took him back to the hotel to check his papers, then she called us to check who Bob Dylan was.

'I’m afraid we all fell about laughing. If it was me, I’d have been demanding his autograph not his photo ID.

'The poor woman has taken rather a lot of abuse from us,' he added.

'I offered to bring in some of my Dylan albums, but unfortunately she doesn’t know what vinyl is either.'

This is not the first time that the notoriously reclusive singer has been spotted out alone.

He shunned his chauffeur-driven car after a concert in Belfast in 1991, and was captured by a television crew waiting at a bus stop instead.

The music legend once told an interviewer: 'Being noticed is a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.'

Dylan’s 1960s anthem The Times They Are a-Changin’ signalled the start of America’s youth protest movement. Given yesterday's incident, it seems he was right.

Read more: [www.dailymail.co.uk]

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Amused
MacPhisto, and do you know everything about ploughshares?
some people are just not interested in the things we are and I'm okay with it.

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squando
"Put an idiot in a uniform and you're going to get extreme idiocy."

So she's an idiot because she didn't recognise or know of Dylan? Check that - I meant an extreme idiot. Would seem the only thing extreme here is this comment.

"The stupid girl doesn't even know what vinyl is. Ridiculous!"

Why? Classic how some people assume because they know of something or someone that everybody else should. She is 22 for God's sake. Born 1987. CDs had phased out vinyl by the end of the 80s. She grew up with cds. We know nothing at all about this girl and she is being ridiculed for what? Not knowing about a bloke that hasn't had a hit single for 30 years and is 46 years her senior. Legend or not, he ain't exactly front page news.

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squando
Why? Classic how some people assume because they know of something or someone that everybody else should. She is 22 for God's sake. Born 1987. CDs had phased out vinyl by the end of the 80s. She grew up with cds.

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This is not the first time that the notoriously reclusive singer has been spotted out alone... He shunned his chauffeur-driven car after a concert in Belfast in 1991, and was captured by a television crew waiting at a bus stop instead.

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Floorbird
Sad, you can't even walk around and look at houses without being harassed; sadder still they never heard of Bob Dylan.

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wolfi
For me the most interesting thing sabout this story are two:

First: It was in the middle of the day - and people get suspicious, because a stranger is walking about...

Second: Bob was really polite and took the whole thing lighthearted(at least so it seems) - not at all like that black professor who had this runin with the police when he couldn't get into his own house...

The US really is a very strange place! Each time we go there on holiday (and I've been to different parts of the USA at least 20 times) we feel like we're on a different planet from Europe!

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SomeTorontoGirl

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This is not the first time that the notoriously reclusive singer has been spotted out alone... He shunned his chauffeur-driven car after a concert in Belfast in 1991, and was captured by a television crew waiting at a bus stop instead.

Bob goes off the beaten track. Last year, in Winnipeg, he went to the childhood home of Neil Young. The owners were returning from shopping and offered the 'fan' a tour. The husband knew who he was but didn't make a big deal. The wife didn't recognise him.

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glencar
I think if an older, scruffy looking fellow is wandering around an area like that, cops are probably thinking "drug buy." Might not be fair but the odds are like that. It's funny that 2 20-somethings didn't know who Dylan was. The 20-somethings have proved to be terribly stupid lately.