Why couldn't a random officer know what Bitcoin is? My father heard of it and knows nothing about technology. It's no longer a secretive online currency, it's everywhere.
If you read the article, it suggests that the police officer is told that the person is Satoshi Nakamoto and the officer exclaims:
"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?"
I can accept that the man on the street would have heard about bitcoin, but to know the name of the person who did the original work on the currency? That just seems a bit unlikely.
Obviously the conversation has been heavily edited. Nobody really speaks so clearly and succinctly.
To me, it looks probable that she really said something like "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto. I think he's the man who created Bitcoin"
So she prepped the police officer to deliver the quote that she wanted "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?", by planting the suggestion first.
It's not a stretch to imagine the conversation went something along the lines of ""I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto, he created Bitcoin." and a little bit of creative license was taken with the reporting.
It still colours the article, but perhaps not so strongly.
