A 33-year-old California father had the police called on him for apparently kidnapping a child, with a neighbor believing he was homeless. What the caller didn’t know at the time was that Chapman Hamborg wasn’t homeless, but instead just needed to “work” on his appearance.
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It was Hamborg himself who posted about the incident back on April 22. His clip, which has gone viral, has garnered more than 2 million likes on Instagram. In it, he explained that he usually walks with his daughter in a baby carrier “multiple times a day.”
However, it appears that one of his neighbors, referred to as “a lady,” wasn’t acquainted with him.
“Someone called the cops on me, thinking I was a homeless person with a baby,” Hamborg said in the video with a smile on his face.
Reportedly, the woman who reported him had followed him home as he was walking the baby and called the police, believing he had kidnapped the child. A police officer arrived shortly after and, after a quick exchange, the situation was quickly clarified. Meanwhile, Hamborg took it all with a good sense of humor.
“Apparently, I need to work on my appearance,” Hamborg wrote in the Instagram post. “I guess being an artist or a tired dad isn’t a valid excuse.”
A Walking Father
In an interview with PEOPLE, Hamborg managed to explain his walking routine with his daughter, which seemed suspicious to his neighbor.
“She’s in her fussy newborn stage, so I take her on lots of walks and I wear her in the baby carrier,” Hamborg said about his daughter. “IÂ go out often in the middle of the night, like all times of the day and multiple times a day. It’s kind of like a routine to give my wife some rest.”
The video also shows his wholesome interaction with the responding police officer, with both of them laughing about the misunderstanding.
“He was very friendly and kind,” Hamborg added. “So I wasn’t on guard…I already kind of had a hint that there must have been some sort of miscommunication.”
While many users in the comments have criticized the woman who reported the man based on his looks, Hamborg doesn’t hold any grudge.
“I would love to meet the neighbor who called the police,” he said. “Not to shame her, but to thank her for being vigilant.”
As if the story didn’t end on a good enough note, following his story going viral, Chapman Hamborg, who is an artist, partnered with Orange County United Way. The California father, who is an artist, joined the organization to fight homelessness.
Champan sold limited-edition prints of his painting, Unseen Path, and donated 20% of the proceeds to the organization. Heartwarmingly, the painting shows Chapman carrying two of his children.