'Palm Beach Pete' Goes Viral for Wild Jeffrey Epstein Likeness
A man who is known as "Palm Beach Pete" has gone viral because of his uncanny and shocking likeness to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It all started when a TikTok user posted a video showing "Palm Beach Pete" tooling around Florida in a convertible, leading to wild and false speculation that Epstein is alive and well. The real Epstein, a financier, died in jail while awaiting trial.
According to TMZ, the original video was recorded while "Palm Beach Pete" was driving his convertible "down a Florida highway," and he told TMZ Live that he's not changing his appearance despite the unfortunate likeness.
'Epstein Out Here in South Florida,' the Original Video Caption of 'Palm Beach Pete' Says
The original TikTok video contained the caption, "Epstein out here in South Florida" and then panned over to video showing "Palm Beach Pete" driving his convertible.
@amposey27 Oh h3ll no
♬ original sound - Andrew Posey
The original video, on the page of a man named Andrew Posey, has more than 10 million views on TikTok alone.
“Epstein is alive! Epstein is alive!” he claimed, even though there is no evidence that Epstein is actually alive, and the video is not of Epstein.
"I'm feeling a little unsettled," wrote one person on the TikTok comment thread. Epstein, of course, perpetrated some of his crimes in South Florida.
'Palm Beach Pete' Declared In an Instagram Video, 'I'm So Not Jeffrey Epstein'
(Photo by Kypros/Getty Images)
"Palm Beach Pete," whose real name is not known, spoke out in a video posted to Instagram. "I’m so not Jeffrey Epstein," he said in the video. To be clear, despite being a dead ringer for Epstein, he is no fan. He also discussed the viral trend in another video.
"Hello, it’s Palm Beach Pete just wanted to thank everybody for the support and good vibes… I’m not Jeffrey Epstein," the man wrote in the caption with the video.
"I’m just me being me…he’s a very bad person. And he is dead.” He called the situation "a crazy phenomenon that has went really viral" and stressed that he has no ties to the real Epstein.
Some Fans Insisted, 'That's Something Jeffrey Epstein Would Say'
But some fans continued to have fun with it. "That’s something Jeffrey Epstein would say," a person wrote in the comment thread. "This feels like a Rick and Morty episode," wrote another person.
"This is literally just Epstein ???? same exact voice as Jeffrey in the files," insisted a person on the comment thread.
Others were kinder. "My man Pete we gotta play golf sometime," a person wrote.
But "Palm Beach Pete" says, no, he's really not Epstein.
“I’m minding my own business driving down to a place in town,” added the Florida man. “And the next thing you know, hundreds of millions of views.” In fact, his page is called "Not Epstein." He added, "Some dude randomly filmed me while I was driving on I-95, unbeknownst to me." Then, his phone started "blowing" up.
“And the next thing I know, I’m a viral sensation,” he added. “I’m not Jeffrey Epstein. I’m Palm Beach Pete!”
The Instagram page, which already has more than 41,000 followers, is titled "Palm Beach Pete…Not Jeffrey Epstein."