Nick Offerman Kevin Winter/Getty Images
A case of mistaken identity once landed Nick Offerman in jail.
The Parks and Rec alum, 53, revealed during a Wednesday, April 17, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he had a run-in with the cops as a teen — a story he has yet to share with his parents.
“Some friends and I, we can say this now, in California, we were smoking marijuana out behind a community theater late one night. And some flashlights came along the creek where we were hanging out, and we realized it was police, and so we began to tiptoe away, and they gave chase, and we wisely ran,” he recounted. “They tackled us and an incredibly tough, diminutive woman who I think may have been Holly Hunter … had her boot on my head and she had her gun on me.”
Offerman learned that he and his friends had been mistaken for robbers who stole a “bunch of cash” from a nearby restaurant.
“[The cops] naturally saw these kids running, and we spent the whole night in jail,” the Civil War star continued. “And the thing is, we were just these innocent, dumb theater kids, and we were saying, ‘No, we were just out there smoking and talking, officer.’”
The group spent the night in jail and were released the following morning after the police were convinced that they weren’t the thieves in question. As a kicker, one of his friends ended up revealing that he still had their maijuana on him while they were locked up.
“He reached into his crotch and pulled it out and was like, ‘You think I’m gonna throw this thing away?’” Offerman recounted. “So we smoked marijuana first thing in the morning in Urbana in front of the sheriff’s station, and now here I am.”
Offerman has been vocal about his love of marijuana and his subsequent decision to quit, telling The Independent in an October 2021 interview that his “life is happy enough that I don’t actually want it.” The actor credited his wife Megan Mullally for being a big reason he no longer smokes — though he admitted that he still keeps a stash at home just in case.
There’s a certain irony surrounding his move to quit pot, Offerman added. “When I depended on marijuana for escapism, I couldn’t get the good stuff. And now that I can afford the most incredible pot, I don’t want it,” he said.
