A Case of Mistaken Identity

Tonight we stopped by Target on our way home from dinner. We were looking for a present to give my niece who just turned seven years old. As we wandered up and down the toy aisles looking for the perfect gift, a stranger came up to Rene and asked if he still worked for Countrywide IT. Here's how the conversation went down:

Stranger: Hey man you still work for the IT department at Countrywide?

Rene: No. I've never worked for Countrywide. Or IT.

Stranger: Really? Because you look just like someone I used to work with years ago. Are you sure you've never worked in IT?

Rene: Nope, I've never worked in IT.

Stranger: You look exactly like someone I used to work with. Maybe I've seen you before - which industry do you work in? Are you in IT?

Rene: (becoming defensive) Uh... none.

Stranger: No industry? What do you do?

Rene: (lying to shake the guy off) I don't have a job.

Stranger: Oh... (walking away awkwardly) You look just like him, you are a dead ringer.

Rene: Ok (starting to walk in opposite direction)

The funny thing is, this is not the first time Rene's been mistaken for someone else at Target. A few months ago another dude came up to him and asked if he'd met him before at a Chippendale event. That's right, a Chippendale event. The kind of event that would require my husband to wear a banana hammock were he performing at said event. That ended awkwardly too, and later we wondered what that meant: was "Chippendale" code for something deviant, or was the guy a male stripper? Anyway, we didn't think anything of this interaction until today, when Rene got called out for working in IT.

I wonder what person Rene will be mistaken for the next time I have to buy dog food at Target.