Rapper Lil Uzi Vert has been mistakenly named as puppy thief in a Pennsylvania police bulletin.
The rapper’s photo appeared on Thursday, August 31, in a Facebook post from the Wilkes-Barre Township Police Department alerting the public about a puppy that had been taken from a pet store.
After the police discovered that Lil Uzi Vert was not the man they were looking for, they replaced it with a different man with face tattoos. The actual suspect is accused of swiping a pooch from Brookside Pups.
The Uzi version lived on the internet for about 30 minutes, enough time for the FB post to be flooded with comments about the Philly artist.
Brookside Pups who spoke to TMZ, said the man who allegedly grabbed a puppy and fled on Thursday afternoon, has Lil Uzi Vert’s face as his profile picture on a social media account which they sent to cops.
Police are blaming the pet store for providing them with the photo of Lil Uzi Vert. Brookside Pups also confirmed that the police took down the photo after they realized the face tattoos on Lil Uzi Vert didn’t match that of the suspect.
Reacting to this, Roc Nation said in a statement;
“The Wilkes-Barre Township Police Department should be embarrassed and ashamed for disparaging [Uzi’s] character. This grave error could’ve had significant repercussions on Uzi’s career and epitomizes how Black men can be wrongfully charged and arrested by police departments across the country.
“Uzi loves all animals and this serious mistake has deterred the apprehension of the kidnapper. Our collective hope is that the puppy is safely and promptly rescued.”