Former “Cosby Show” Actor Shamed for Working at Trader Joes

Geoffrey Owens, who is best remembered for playing the role of Elvin Tibideaux on the “Cosby Show” has been making many headlines in recent days after being spotted working at a Trader Joes.

The actor, who was photographed scanning groceries at a New Jersey Trader Joe’s, quickly went viral.

“I was only devastated for an hour or two,” Owens had said to CNN in a recent interview. “It was hurtful but very short lived. What has been sustained, now over days, is how much love and support there is. Not just for me but for working people. The idea that ‘Hey, what’s wrong with working at Trader Joe’s, or any job like that?”

The woman who took the photo of the actor has apologized and feels bad about how things turned out.

“I don’t know why I snuck a picture,” Karma Lawrence, 50, told NJ.com. “I figured everybody does it. I don’t know what possessed me. I just did it. I didn’t even think about it. I just kind of did it on impulse and it was a bad impulse.”

“When I saw him working there I thought maybe because of everything with Bill Cosby that his residuals got cut,” she added. “And people have to take a normal job. But I didn’t think anything bad about it. I work a normal job.”

Owens, who appeared on “Good Morning America” said he was working at the store for 15 months, but has quit due to the publicity. Trader Joes has said he is welcome to come back if he wants to return.

“I didn’t advertise that I was at Trader Joe’s, not because I was ashamed of it,” he said, “but because I didn’t want the entertainment community to decide, ’He’s doing that, he’s not pursuing acting anymore.’”
“It wasn’t malicious,” Lawrence said. “I actually wanted to go up to him and say something, but I thought, you might embarrass him. But then I did something that actually embarrassed him more. I didn’t go with my first instinct, and I should’ve.”

Owens has said he has received “amazing support.” Tyler Perry has even offered the actor a job.