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The following will be much more interesting if you know who Mike Portnoy is: he’s the drummer for Dream Theater, arguably the most successful progressive metal band in history. More often than not, he’s been the face of the band, tirelessly doing interviews and promotions and shooting home videos of sessions and concerts and etc. Also he’s won the annual Modern Drummer readers’ poll in many categories for many years. The point is, he’s far from obscure; in the rock music scene, he’s perhaps one of the best-known personalities. Now check out this crazy story:

Someone has been out on the streets and in bars in New York City claiming to be Mike Portnoy. This person apparently knew a lot of Mike’s intimate business and family details, and as such managed to convince a number of people that he was indeed the drummer for Dream Theater. Using Mike Portnoy’s identity, the imposter managed to steal wallets, credit cards, cell phones, house keys, and whatever else he could get his hands on. Fortunately, the imposter was located and arrested today…

This is completely bizarre. Mike Portnoy is married and sober and presumably wealthy, whereas the imposter was drunk, hanging out in bars, picking up guys, cadging drinks, and spending nights in the homes of people he just met. The scary thing is, everybody believed it. I don’t mean to say they’re dumb for being fooled, but that the imposter must have been pretty slick to convince everybody.

Read more about the Mike Portnoy imposter.

Also here are two forum posts [1, 2] by one of the witnesses who will be testifying against the imposter.