Scott Weiland Impersonator Fools Everyone – Including The Police That Arrested Him

A man impersonating former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland has fooled police for over a month.

Reports surfaced last month that Scott Weiland was arrested outside a Beverly Hills Rite Aid drug store on July 26 for stealing razors and having methamphetamine on his person, according to TMZ.

The man who was arrested told police officers that he was Scott Weiland, and provided authorities with Scott Weiland’s personal information, including his birthdate. Police records indicate that the man was incarcerated in jail and was held on a $95,000 bond.

News reports finally picked up the story yesterday, August 21, stating that Scott Weiland was behind bars in Beverly Hills.

Will the real Scott Weiland please stand up? Stand up he did. Yesterday, the real Scott Weiland posted a video of himself on his Facebook page, where he clearly was not in jail. Weiland said in the video:

“I just got done reading something very interesting. A nice piece of fiction saying I was in jail and have been for months. I’ve actually been touring, writing and recording, this is the studio we’re in right now. So all I have to say to our fans is don’t worry, don’t fret, it’s a lie.”

Weiland also said in the video that TMZ, the Hollywood gossip website that originally published the story, would be “hearing from [Weiland’s] attorneys.”

The Beverly Hills Police Department also released a statement yesterday, according to Us Magazine, explaining themselves:

“On Saturday, July 26th, 2014, at approximately 9:34 a.m., the Beverly Hills Police Department received a call of a shoplift that had just occurred at the Rite Aid in the 400 Block of N. Bedford Drive. Police units ultimately arrested a suspect for that crime. Upon arrest, the suspect identified himself as former Stone Temple Pilots band member Scott Weiland.”

The police statement went on to reveal how they discovered the Scott Weiland mix-up… over a month later.

“On Thursday, August 21st, 2014, Beverly Hills Police discovered through an FBI fingerprint return that the subject arrested was not Scott Weiland. The fingerprint return positively identified the individual as Jason Michael Hurley (44 years of age).”

TMZ — which is clearly now in retraction and update mode regarding the story — says that the police only confronted the incarcerated individual, now identified as Jason Michael Hurley, after Scott Weiland posted his video on his Facebook page saying that he wasn’t in jail.

The gossip site also is giving a step by step list of information they received from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department possibly in response to the mention of “attorneys” in Scott Weiland’s video.

[Image via matrix to a muse]