A FATHER was mistaken for a homeless man by a neighbor who reported him to the police for stealing his own child.
Influencer Chapman Hamborg, 33, was strolling through his neighborhood with his baby secured in a carrier on his chest when authorities paid him an unexpected visit later that day.
Hamborg posted the hilarious mix-up on Instagram, with a video of him and his baby.
The words on the screen read: “POV: Your neighbor calls the cops, reporting you as a homeless man with a stolen baby.”
In the video, Hamborg can be seen in a baggy brown Patagonia jacket, stained jeans, and worn-out slippers, with his long hair tied up in a bun on top of his head.
“I take our newborn daughter for walks around our neighborhood while wearing her in the baby carrier multiple times a day,” he noted in the video’s caption.
“I am surprised all of my neighbors haven’t seen me and recognize me by now.”
The dad lives in Huntington Beach, California, and said he likes to walk his daughter around the area to give his wife a break.
Later in the afternoon, authorities arrived at Hamborg’s home to question him about his walk.
“Were you going for a walk?” an officer asked the father.
“Is this baby or something? Your neighbors saw you and thought you were homeless.”
In the quick video of the incident from April 22, Hamborg’s wife, Hannah, could be heard freaking out about the cops being called.
“Stop! No, they didn’t,” Hannah replied when Hamborg told her about the neighbor calling the cops.
“This lady lives a street over,” the officer explained to Hamborg in the video.
“She saw you, she got worried, so she followed you and then saw you walk into here.”
The father joked about the mistake in his caption, saying he may need to start dressing better.
“Apparently I need to work on my appearance—I guess being an artist or a tired dad isn’t a valid excuse,” he wrote.
“If you saw me, would you have thought I was homeless?” he asked.
Hamborg’s video has racked up over 50 million views, with thousands of commenters shocked by the interaction.
I would like to use it as an opportunity to get to know my neighbor and to be thankful that she’s looking out for our kids or the neighborhood.
Chapman Hamborg
Hamborg told People that the officer was “very friendly and kind,” so he didn’t have his guard up.
“I already kind of had a hint that there must have been some sort of miscommunication.”
The father said he’s thinking of sending his neighbor a letter, thanking her for being vigilant rather than accusing her of attacking him.
“I would like to use it as an opportunity to get to know my neighbor and to be thankful that she’s looking out for our kids or the neighborhood,” Hamborg said.
“Rather than, you know, turning it into a divisive thing.”
