This is one of those stories that I became more and more dumbfounded as I read on. So Phillip Michael Schaeffer, 54, of Monticello, Minn. has been charged "with two counts of communications fraud stemming from visits to the hospital in 2011, 2012 and 2013 in which he allegedly first pretended to be 60-year-old Canadian Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and then 67-year-old English Pink Floyd guitarist and singer David Gilmour," according to The Spectrum. Apparently Schaeffer posed as Lifeson in 2011 at the Dixie Regional Medical Center and racked up $23,328.27 before bailing, and then as Gilmour in both November 2012 and February 2013 with $15,000 and $34,000 in bills before leaving.
Oh, and then he was supposed to show in court Jan. 21 to be heard before a judge and he didn't show up at all. My bet? He was down at the local bar telling the bartender he's Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and to open a tab.
I wanted to back up to the whole "skipping out on a hospital bill three times" thing real quick. Was there nobody who liked Rush or Pink Floyd there any of those three times that thought something was a little weird about the whole situation? Or maybe somebody who saw him twice and put the pieces together? Also, I'm sure someone asked him about his time in the bands, so I would have to think he had a whole catalogue of bullshit to feed them.
Again, wow. This happened and the worst part is he got away with it three times (kind of).
[Photo credit to "Shipguy" of The Spectrum]
