British authorities have been forced to confirm images of a suspected thief do not feature actor David Schwimmer, best known as his Friends character Ross Geller.
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Blackpool police posted the man's photo on their Facebook page in the hopes of identifying him in relation to a theft at a restaurant.
Their question, "do you recognise this man?" trigged an influx of responses from the public, who quickly noticed the uncanny resemblance to the iconic TV persona.
"I bet he shouted 'PIVOT!' as he lifted the beers," wrote one commenter, borrowing from one of Ross' most well-loved lines.
"I was going to read the report for this but it was 18 pages... FRONT AND BACK!" replied another, a reference to one of Ross and Rachel's infamous arguments.
Even the police joined in on the gag in the comments section to reassure the public the suspect pictured was definitely not the 51-year-old actor.
"Thank you to everyone for your speedy responses," the comment read.
"We have investigated this matter thoroughly and have confirmed that David Schwimmer was in America on this date.
"We're so sorry it has to be this way."
Not everyone saw the funny side, however. One woman appealed for the public to take the situation more seriously, claiming her son was the victim of the robbery.
"Can't believe everyone is making a joke of this," she wrote.
"It's a serious matter, this was my son who got robbed and this man needs to be found... instead of making a joke of this please help."
One jokester remained undeterred, responding to the plea with the lyrics to the Friends theme song.
"Sorry to hear about your son, not been his day, week, month or even his year," he wrote.
At the time of writing, the post has been shared over 40,000 times, and has garnered nearly 70,000 comments.
Newshub.
