A Peruvian man recently got his five minutes of online fame after his curious signature went viral on social media. Instead of the typical scribble or just a simple ‘X’, this guy always signs his name with the childish drawing of a kitten.
The man’s signature went viral after a photo of his ID next to an official police document signed by him were posted online by police in the coastal town of Huarmey. He along with five other had been arrested on July 18 on charges of gun possession, and after being taken to the local police station and signed into jail, one signature drew the attention of officers on duty.
Instead of a name or a simple scribble, 31-year-old Juan Carlos Varillas Bazán had drawn a childish doodle of a kitten. Only after checking his ID and seeing that it featured the same drawing as a signature did they realize that they were not being trolled and that that was really the guy’s signature. They thought it was hilarious so they posted the documents on the station’s Facebook page for everyone to see.
While some Facebook and Twitter users joked that the man couldn’t write, it turns out that the kitty doodle actually has a touching story behind it. The 31-year-old Peruvian told La Republica that when he was 16 he had a kitten that he loved very much, so when he got his first ID card, he decided to honor its memory by signing his name with the now famous doodle.
The man told reporters that the staff at the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC) advised him to chose a more common way of signing himself in order to avoid trouble in the future, but he just stuck with it. He admits that the doodle does make things harder for him whenever he needs to sign an important document. For example, banks always ask to see his ID to make sure the signatures match.