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Music

A Quick Guide to Being Terrible at Fraud: the Nickelback Edition

Or how to get caught trying to buy $25,000 worth of musical equipment pretending to be the band's drummer.

Put yourself in the mindset of a fraudster. If you were going to steal an identity, whose would you steal? What would you do, now that you – for all intents and purposes – had become that person? I ask because most of us probably would not choose Daniel Adair, or as he is also known, the guy who plays drums in Nickelback. But, the world is a big place – different strokes for different folks – and he was the selection for Lee Howard Koenig, 45, of Florida, an aspiring rockstar who claims to have worked on Saturday Night Live, and with the Beach Boys and Billy Joel.

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Allegedly impersonating Adair online, Koenig tried to order $25,000 worth of microphones and drum equipment, but was unfortunately caught out when the real-life Adair, who doesn't even live in Florida (come the fuck on bro) was contacted about the order. After some sleuthing, Adair tracked Koenig down, and he was arrested on Tuesday 28 February. The dream, alas, of ordering a bunch of stuff in the guy from Nickleback's name and probably getting minor gratification from it, is dead.

Though it's not known how Koenig came into possession of Adair's details, he does have previous form for this sort of thing: as reported by the New York Daily News, he was sentenced in 2009 for fraud (and on an unrelated but also completely incredible note, he lists one of his interests on Facebook as: "PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT TRYING TO GET A PIECE OF ME." In many ways, we are all Lee Howard Koenig)

Guess he just really wanted to BE A ROCKSTAAAAR. :-(

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(Image via Wikimedia Commons)