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The fact that the arresting officer allegedly did not know Justin Timberlake inspires memes

The police officer who recently arrested Justin Timberlake for drunk driving allegedly didn’t know who the Grammy winner was – and the internet can’t stop laughing.

Shortly after Timberlake, 43, was stopped and arrested on Long Island, New York, on June 18 after leaving the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, New York Post‘s Page Six reported that the police officer knew neither about his fame nor about his profession.

“The cop didn’t know who he was at first,” a source reportedly told the outlet. “Justin said quietly, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’ The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.'”

The source’s quotes sparked an uproar on social media, with many users finding it funny that the *NSYNC member allegedly assumed officials knew about his ongoing “Forget Tomorrow World Tour.”

Justin Timberlake.

Kevin Mazur/Getty


“I already have a feeling that ‘this is going to ruin the tour. The world tour’ is going to be part of my vocabulary for the next six months,” wrote one X (formerly Twitter) User.

“I’ll start saying ‘that will ruin the tour‘ in response to every little inconvenience in my life,” said another person on the platform.

“‘This will ruin the tour,’ I whisper when my PTO request is denied,” says one viral X-post with more than 121,000 likes.

Timberlake’s arrest occurred on the morning of June 18 after he was hanging out at the bar “with friends,” a source told PEOPLE at the time. “No one was hurt,” the insider added.

Timberlake was charged with drunken driving and two violations – one for failure to stop at a stop sign and one for failure to maintain lane.

Justin Timberlake in Berlin in February 2020.

Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty


According to his arrest report, obtained by PEOPLE, the hitmaker told authorities, “I drank a martini and followed my friends home.”

After conducting a traffic stop, a police officer found that Timberlake’s “eyes were bloodshot and glassy, ​​his breath gave off the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage, he was unable to divide his attention, spoke slowly, was unsteady on his feet, and performed poorly on all standardized sobriety tests,” the police report states.

Justin Timberlake.

Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock


The following day, attorney Edward Burke Jr. released a statement obtained by PEOPLE, saying, “Mr. Burke looks forward to vigorously defending Mr. Timberlake against these allegations. He will have much to say in due course. He is currently awaiting the full evidentiary results from the prosecution.”

Timberlake has not yet made a public statement about his arrest. His world tour is scheduled to include two stops in Chicago on June 21 and 22 and two in New York on June 25 and 26.