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Bogus Beckham Amok in L.A.

Wed., Aug. 1, 2007 12:43 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

David Beckham has truly arrived—he has his very own impostor running around Los Angeles.

The bogus Beckham surfaced over the weekend, bombarding local authorities with calls seeking to organize children's charity events in his name and offering tickets to see him play with his new team, the L.A. Galaxy.

County public information officer Judy Hammond says the ersatz soccer star phoned county offices and the Sheriff's Department over a dozen times, gabbing with staff about his altruistic endeavors for kids and opening up about his friendship with pal Tom Cruise.

"A week ago Monday he called here and I talked with him. He said he was interested in underprivileged children and domestic violence programs. He was wondering how he could get involved, including making appearances, public service announcements and autographs," Hammond tells E! Online.

Hammond said put the man, who apparently affected a passable British accent, in touch with reps for the sheriff's youth foundation and the county's children's services. Those officials were at first delighted by the man's offer to autograph jerseys and invite a group to attend a Galaxy practice.

"Obviously the county would be thrilled if Mr. Beckham would do anything like that. He's a hero to the kids," says Hammond. "It certainly sounded like him. And if it was, we certainly didn't want to alienate him. He was a really personable, nice guy."

Hammond also knew the real Becks does raise money for various children's causes. But officials soon became suspicious because this is Hollywood and agents and publicists, not celebrities, are typically the ones who organize such charity events. (The Sheriff's Department was unable to contact the British athlete's own reps, who were apparently out of town; however, the caller did drop the name of Beckham's real agent.)

The fraudulent footballer subsequently chatted up one of the county's student workers and suggested he come by in person last Friday to give her a sweatshirt.

He failed to show as promised at 10:30 a.m., and then called back to say he'd be coming at 2:30 p.m. That's when skeptical county staff put him on the phone with the Sheriff's Department. Officials wanted to suss out whether he was the real-deal Becks; if so, the department wanted to ensure that the proper security measures were in place.

"It rattled him and he hung up," says Hammond. "I haven't heard from him since."

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said authorities were looking into the crank calls, but probably wouldn't pursue any action because the con man in question didn't try to gain from it.

"We're following up to see if it rises to an offense," says Whitmore. "Right now, it doesn't look like it. If there's no intent to gain or any damages that resulted from [the calls] then I think I it's pretty much benign."

Beckham's publicist insists the star athlete, whose hyped debut with the Galaxy has been limited to just a brief cameo showing in a single match so far, had nothing to do with the calls.

"It was an impersonator and it really is awful as this person was giving these kids false hope."