Everybody loves a good Bill Murray story because everybody has a good Bill Murray story. They usually happen to a friend of a friend of a friend, involve the comedy legend popping up unexpectedly and doing something hilarious, and then they end with Murray reminding the lucky witnesses that no one will ever believe them when they tell their Bill Murray story. Maybe he crashed your relative’s wedding reception and danced with everybody? Maybe your old roommate was walking down the street in Chicago when Bill Murray ran up and started tickling him? Maybe you went to his house after the zombie apocalypse and accidentally shot him? Whatever the story, the great thing about them is that they all ride this fine line between being wacky and being realistic. In the end, we choose to believe them because we love Bill Murray, and those stories make the world seem like a slightly more magical place.
Now, though, some fans in California might just have the wackiest Bill Murray story of them all. Supposedly, Bill Murray took their phones and threw them over the roof of a building while they were at a restaurant, breaking them in the process. This is the point where most Bill Murray stories end, hence the “nobody will ever believe you” thing, but it turns out that the police actually believed this story and contacted one of Murray’s representatives the next morning to explain the situation. Murray then admitted that he had been at the restaurant—but didn’t admit to breaking the phones—and agreed to pay to have them replaced, which is all the fans wanted in the first place.
The important part, though, is that since Bill Murray is so widely beloved, nobody will ever believe that he would do something so mean. It would’ve been the perfect crime, if only he hadn’t been caught. However, this raises an interesting and terrifying question: What has Bill Murray gotten away with simply because everyone likes him too much to believe that he’d do something wrong?