Lancaster Amateur Police Sketch

2018Viral imagedead

Published July 28, 2026

Also known as: Lancaster Police Sketch · Amateur Police Sketch

The Lancaster Amateur Police Sketch is a viral image from February 2018 showing a crudely drawn witness sketch that, against all odds, actually helped police identify a robbery suspect in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The cartoonish doodle spread across Twitter after CBS News shared it alongside the suspect's real photo, sparking widespread jokes about how anyone could possibly make an identification from such a rough drawing.

Overview

The meme centers on a witness-drawn sketch used in a real police investigation that looks more like a child's doodle than a forensic portrait. The drawing is extremely simple, with basic lines forming a rough face shape, minimal detail, and none of the refined technique associated with professional composite sketches1. What makes it funny is the side-by-side comparison with the actual suspect's photo, which police confirmed was identified partly thanks to this very sketch. The absurd contrast between the crude drawing and its real-world effectiveness became the core joke2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (Lancaster Bureau of Police post), Twitter (viral spread via CBS News)
Key People
Unknown witness, Lancaster City Police Department
Date
2018

On February 6, 2018, a man robbed Lancaster's Central Market by posing as an employee and making off with an undisclosed amount of cash1. A witness to the robbery provided police with a hand-drawn sketch of the suspect. The next day, February 7, the Lancaster City Police Department posted on Facebook announcing that the sketch had helped identify the suspect as 44-year-old Hung Phuoc Nguyen2. The police acknowledged the sketch's quality head-on, writing: "While the sketch provided by the witness may have appeared amateurish and cartoonish, it, along with the distinctive physical descriptors, jogged the memory of at least one investigator to provide a potential suspect name"1.

How It Spread

On February 8, 2018, CBS News tweeted the image of the amateur sketch placed next to Nguyen's actual photo2. The tweet picked up serious momentum, pulling in more than 13,000 retweets and 30,000 likes2. The side-by-side format was inherently comedic and required zero additional context to land.

Twitter users immediately ran with it. User @SonOfADooG posted a bit imagining the moment of identification: "officer looks at doodle. officer looks at suspect. officer looks at doodle. officer looks at suspect, squinting. officer looks at doodle. 'yup this is him.'" That tweet earned over 1,700 retweets and 9,500 likes within four days2. User @SeeDaneRun took a different approach, posting the cover of Jason Mraz's album *We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things* with the caption "Somewhere, @jason_mraz: 'Whew.'" That one pulled roughly 250 retweets and 3,100 likes in the same window2.

By February 9, Twitter compiled a Moments page dedicated to reactions2. On February 13, Redditor CallMeBicBoi posted a "You Vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About" variation using the sketch on r/MemeEconomy2. Several major outlets covered the viral reaction, including the Washington Post, TIME, and NBC2.

Despite all the internet attention, Nguyen had not been apprehended as of the initial reporting1.

How to Use This Meme

The Lancaster Amateur Police Sketch typically gets used in two ways:

1

Side-by-side comparison jokes — Place the sketch next to a photo (the original suspect, a celebrity, a cartoon character) to highlight the absurd gap between the drawing and reality.

2

Template for "nailed it" humor — Reference the sketch when someone's attempt at something is hilariously off the mark but technically gets the job done. It works as a reaction image for situations where a terrible effort somehow produces a correct result.

Cultural Impact

The sketch got coverage from major news organizations including the Washington Post, TIME, and NBC, all of which reported on the Twitter reaction as much as the crime itself2. The story hit a sweet spot: it was a lighthearted crime story (no one was hurt, the sketch was genuinely funny) with a twist that the terrible drawing actually worked. Mashable covered it with the headline framing it as the most amateur doodle that somehow caught a thief1. The story also reinforced a recurring internet fascination with police composite sketches, joining a lineage of viral moments where witness drawings look nothing like their subjects.

Fun Facts

The Lancaster Bureau of Police preemptively addressed the sketch's quality in their own Facebook post, calling it "amateurish and cartoonish" before the internet even had a chance to roast it1.

The witness sketch wasn't the only piece of evidence. Police noted that "distinctive physical descriptors" provided alongside the drawing helped narrow down the suspect2.

The suspect, Hung Phuoc Nguyen, committed the robbery by pretending to be a Central Market employee1.

Anyone with information was directed to call Lancaster Police at (717) 735-3300 or Lancaster Crime Stoppers at (800) 322-19131.

Frequently Asked Questions