A low-key weekend sighting of Stranger Things star David Harbour at a North County San Diego bookstore quickly turned into something much louder, as social media speculation and wild unverified online claims collided with an already intense year of scrutiny for one of Netflix’s most recognizable faces.
Harbour, best known for his portrayal of Jim Hopper on Netflix’s global hit Stranger Things, was reportedly spotted Saturday afternoon inside the Barnes & Noble bookstore within Gateway Shopping Center in Escondido, where customers recognized the actor, snapped photos, and briefly interacted with him. The sighting, first shared on social media, described Harbour casually browsing and chatting with fans – a seemingly ordinary celebrity-in-the-wild moment that would normally end there.
But then on Sunday, a Reddit thread began circulating dramatically different, and entirely unconfirmed, account involving a man alleged to be Harbour in other parts of North County. The widely shared post on the r/sandiego subreddit described an alarming encounter at a Vista gas station involving aggressive behavior and repeated demands for a ride to a monastery in Escondido. The post, written by an anonymous user, claimed the situation escalated until a San Diego County sheriff deputy intervened. No police report, surveillance footage, or official confirmation has been released, and law enforcement agencies have not verified the incident or the identity of the individual involved…