"In Jersey everything's legal, as long as you don't get caught," Bob Dylan sang in one of his Traveling Wilburys tunes. In an ironic switcheroo, Dylan was apprehended in New Jersey last month even though he was not breaking the law.
The rock icon was only guilty of not being recognized by the young cops who answered a complaint that there was a weirdo lurking around the Long Branch, N.J., neighborhood who was "wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head."
According to reports, the soggy songwriter told the cops he was staying at a nearby hotel and doing a concert later that evening with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.
Since the "Like a Rolling Stone" singer was carrying no I.D., the cops were skeptical, with one saying, "We see a lot of people on our beat, and I wasn't sure if he came from one of our hospitals or something."
The officers drove Dylan back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where he told them he was staying, and Dylan's tour staff produced his passport. We wouldn't have been surprised if Dylan was a bit tangled up in blue about the whole affair, but one of the slightly red-faced cops said he was a good sport about it:
"He was really nice, though, and he said he understood why I had to verify his identity and why I couldn't let him go."
Catch a more memorable moment of Bob's earlier this year when he topped the album charts over that whippersnapper Miley Cyrus.