Faced with a medical emergency but lacking health insurance, a Minnesota man recently tried to dodge his hospital bill by impersonating Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

The man, whose symptoms were undisclosed but whose care may have cost as much as $100,000, was apparently pretty comfortable pretending to be Gilmour; according to reports, he went so far as to sign an autograph for a hospital employee's son before he was released. And if he'd left it at that, he might not be facing felony theft charges.

As it happened, however, he returned to the hospital for a follow-up visit a few days later -- and while he was out, employees suspicious of his story decided to flag his patient file. As a spokesperson explained to the St. Cloud Times, "There was some discussion among security staff leading people to believe that he really wasn’t David Gilmour, so our security supervisor pulled up the security camera shots of when this man entered the hospital and compared them to pictures on the Internet of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and determined he was not David Gilmour."

Unluckily for Gilmour's impersonator, he showed up at the hospital while a police officer was on the scene, and -- after initially claiming to be in town for a visit while on break from Pink Floyd's (sadly non-existent) tour, and offering documents purporting to prove he was insured by Lloyd's of London -- he ended up admitting he was a fake and being taken to jail.

Incidents like these are a sad byproduct of being a celebrity, unfortunately -- although we tend to think that if Pink Floyd were actually on tour, its members' whereabouts would be common knowledge, and it'd be harder for would-be swindlers to assume their identities. Just a thought, guys.

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