Posing As Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour To Scam Hospital For $100K In Treatment Is Not A Good Idea
The man in the foreground did not try to con a Minnesota hospital.
The St. Cloud Times in Minnesota has the story of a man who somehow conned hospital staff into believing that he is actually David Gilmour, the English guitarist and singer for Pink Floyd, when in fact he was just a guy from a nearby town.
The 53-year-old (the real Gilmour is 67) checked into the hospital on April 20 and gave his name as David Gilmour. He said he didn’t have any insurance, but he was treated and released.
Some staffers doubted that this uninsured man was indeed one of the artists behind one of the most lucrative catalogs in music history. His records were flagged and security camera footage was compared against recent photos of Gilmour to confirm that this was not the man whose “Comfortably Numb” guitar solo you awkwardly made out to when you were 14.
And yet, he returned a few days later, insisting he was David Gilmour and presenting documentation that he had coverage from Lloyd’s of London, insurer to the stars. The patient insisted that Pink Floyd, which has not toured in several years, was actually touring in Canada and he’d decided to stop in St. Cloud — many, many miles from the nearest Canadian border — to get treatment.
So he was seen by an emergency room doctor, who also had doubts that Cambridge-born Gilmour would sound like a guy from Minnesota.
But still, the man persisted, even going so far as to sign an autograph for a hospital employee.
Convinced that this patient probably doesn’t know how to play the Atom Heart Mother suite, a security supervisor alerted a St. Cloud police officer who happened to be in the hospital at the same time.
The man fessed up and was taken into custody. However, he has yet to be charged with a crime.
So just take this lesson to heart: If you’re going to pretend to be a member of Pink Floyd, go with Nick Mason because most people don’t know what he looks like.
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