[imagesource: Leon Neal / Pool Photo via AP]

A bad mugshot can haunt a celebrity or public figure for the rest of their life.

Thankfully for Tiger Woods, he’s so popular that his 2017 mugshot after being arrested for driving under the influence has been largely forgotten.

Bill Gates, on the other hand, is not as well-loved. He recently said that when he walks down the street, people shout at him and accuse him of tracking people via the COVID-19 vaccine.

I really do fear for the future of humanity at times.

Gates has not been arrested for a tracking vaccine, or child sex trafficking charges (as bogus reports from last year stated), but he was arrested way back in 1977 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In a 2007 TIME article, the billionaire went into some detail about what transpired:

There’s a great photo of Bill Gates from 1977, the year he would have graduated from Harvard if he hadn’t dropped out. He was 22 at the time and looks all of 16. He’s got a flowered collar, tinted glasses and feathered blond hair, and he looks so happy, you’d swear he knew what the rest of his life was going to be like. He also has a sign around his neck: it’s a mug shot.

“I was out driving Paul [Allen]’s car,” Gates says, flashing that same smile 30 years later. “They pulled me over, and I didn’t have my license, and they put me in with all the drunks all night long. And that’s why the rest of my life, I’ve always tried to have a fair amount of cash with me. I like the idea of being able to bail myself out.”

As far as mugshots go, this is a pretty darn good one:

That floral collar and the shades are a potent combo. It’s rumoured he was driving Allen’s Porsche 911 when arrested.

According to Snopes, Gates was also arrested in 1975 for speeding and driving without a licence, and in 1989 on suspicion of drunken driving.

That charge was later reduced.

[sources:time&snopes]