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Woman Goes Viral After Allegedly Calling Cops On Girl, 8, Selling Water

Woman Goes Viral After Allegedly Calling Cops On Girl, 8, Selling Water

The woman, who has been nicknamed 'Permit Patti' on social media, said it was 'mistake'

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A clip of a woman allegedly calling the cops after seeing an eight-year-old girl selling bottles of water has gone viral.

The child's mum, Erin Austin, filmed and posted the clip on her Instagram account yesterday and it was then shared by a woman who said she was the little girl's cousin.

In it the mum is following a woman called Alison Ettel, who can be seen chatting on her phone 'to police', after she spotted the little girl flogging the water outside San Francisco's AT&T Park.

The little girl was offering bottles of 'cold water for two dollars', according to USA Today and was hoping to raise some money to go to Disneyland.

Sharing the clip online, Erin wrote: "Make this bitch go viral like #bbqbecky she's #permitpatty would you rather my daughter be out here getting into shit Fr cuz an 8-year-old selling water in front of her apartment building where she's lived her whole life is NOT a reason to call the Police. [sic]"

In the clip the woman can be heard saying into the phone: "Yeah, illegally selling water without a permit."

Before saying: "On my property." To which Erin replied: 'No it's not."

Instagram

Within a couple of hours of sharing the clip #permitpatti was trending, with many people comparing the incident to one from earlier this year in which a woman called cops on a black family having a barbeque in Oakland, earning herself the nickname BBQ Becky.

However, speaking to the HuffPost, Ettel, says there was 'no racial component' to it and that she only pretended to call police.

She told the news outlet: "They were screaming about what they were selling. It was literally nonstop. It was every two seconds, 'Come and buy my water.' It was continuous and it wasn't a soft voice, it was screaming."

Instagram

But she added: "It was stupid. I completely regret that I handled that so poorly. It was completely stress-related, and I should have never confronted her. That was a mistake, a complete mistake. Please don't make me sound horrible."

But all is well that ends well, and the little girl in the clip was gifted four tickets for Disneyland by an anonymous donor, who saw the video.

Featured Image Credit: Twitter/Instagram

Topics: Viral, US News