'Permit Patty' DID call the cops: Newly released 911 call confirms white CEO of a marijuana company reported eight-year-old black girl to police for selling water after claiming she was only pretending

  • Audio from Allison Ettel's 911 call appears to prove that she did try to summon police to deal with eight-year-old girl selling bottled water
  • She could be heard telling a dispatcher: 'I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that's selling water across from the ballpark'
  • Dispatcher promises to transfer her call to the San Francisco Police Department, but for an unknown reason the line goes dead 17 seconds later
  • Ettel previously told news outlets she was only bluffing about calling police to get the girl and her mother to quiet down 
  • She has apologized and stepped down as CEO of TreatWell Health amid the furious backlash  

A white San Francisco businesswoman dubbed 'Permit Patty' has claimed that she was only pretending to call police on an eight-year-old black girl selling water outside her home, but a newly released 911 call appears to directly contradict her story.

Alison Ettel later apologized for her handling of the situation and stepped down as CEO of a local medical marijuana company.

The station KTVU has obtained the recording of Ettel's 911 call, in which she could be heard telling a dispatcher: 'I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that's selling water across from the ballpark.'

When the camera approaches, she unapologetically points out that the 8-year-old did not have a permit to sell water
The eight-year-old girl is pictured

She DID call: Newly obtained 911 call audio proves that Alison Ettel, dubbed 'Permit Patty', (left) did call the police on eight-year-old Jordan (right) who was selling bottled water on the sidewalk in San Francisco

Ettel then asks to be contacted with 'someone to talk about that' and the emergency operator puts her on hold to transfer her call to the San Francisco Police Department.

'Great, thank you,' she replies.  

The call ends abruptly 17 seconds later. It remains unknown whether Ettel hung up, or whether the call was accidentally disconnected by the dispatcher or the police.

The station confirmed that the call came from Ettel's cellphone number and was logged in the San Francisco Police Dispatch records as a report of a 'suspicious person.' 

Branded by Internet wits 'Permit Patty' for her apparent love of rules, Ettel was caught on camera appearing to call the authorities on the young girl for selling bottled water near AT&T Park without a permit, in a video that swiftly went viral.

Ettel, the founder and now-former CEO of TreatWell Health, claimed she has received death threats and abuse following the footage as many branded her 'racist' and suggesting she didn't care about the life of a young African-American girl if she would risk potential violence by calling the police.

Several San Francisco dispensaries had also pulled products from Ettel's company in the wake of the video.

A spokesman for TreatWell Health, a company which specializes in cannabis products for people and pets, announced that Ettel had left the company so that its employees and patients wouldn't suffer abuse as a result of her actions.

The 44-year-old has also apologized for calling the cops.

'It was wrong, and I wish I could take it back,' she told SFGate on Saturday, hours after video of the incident in San Francisco raced across social media. 'Believe me, I wish I never had done that.'

In interviews, Ettel said that she acted out of frustration after the girl and an adult woman had been 'screaming' outside her window all day, and only pretended to call 911 in a desperate attempt to get them to pipe down.

The original tweet,  as the camera rolls, Ettel ducks down behind a wall but continues to call cops

The original tweet,  as the camera rolls, Ettel ducks down behind a wall but continues to call cops

Race, she says, had nothing to do with it. But reaction to video of the incident was swift and furious, drawing death threats and messages vowing sexual assault in retaliation, Ettel said.

The incident unfolded on Saturday afternoon, when a brief video was posted on Twitter showing Ettel speaking on the phone and an unidentified woman accusing her of calling the cops on a girl selling bottled water on the sidewalk. 

'Don’t hide, the whole world gonna see you, boo,' the person shooting the video says. Ettel replies: 'Yeah, illegally selling water without a permit.'

When the person shooting the video says that the girl is selling water on her own property, the woman says 'its not your property' as she walks away. 

Allison Ettel, 44, says she regrets her actions

Allison Ettel, 44, says she regrets her actions

'So my little cousin was selling water and didn't have a permit so this lady decided to call the cops on an 8 year old,' wrote Twitter user Raj (@_ethipiangold) alongside the video.

Raj referred to the woman as #PermitPatty. 

Ettel said the incident had actually been brewing for hours, with the woman and girl screaming incessantly outside of her window as she tried to work.

'They were screaming about what they were selling,' she told HuffPost. '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.'

She said that she approached building security but was told they couldn't do anything.

'I have no problem with enterprising young women. I want to support that little girl. It was all the mother and just about being quiet,' she said. 

At her wit's end, Ettel said she pretended to call 911, but claimed she was actually bluffing.

A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department said officers have had no recent contact with an eight-year-old girl and the woman who posted the video said that no police ever responded. 

However, critics who spread the video far and wide said that even the threat of calling 911 on the black woman and child was racist and 'evil'. 

'They want police to kill us. The girl was causing no harm. They know what happens when they call the police,' wrote columnist Shaun King. 'This is evil.' 

Jordan, 8, who was selling bottled water to pay for a trip to Disneyland before a white woman appeared to call police on her, got her wish when Good Samaritan Jonathon Brannon bought tickets

Jordan, 8, who was selling bottled water to pay for a trip to Disneyland before a white woman appeared to call police on her, got her wish when Good Samaritan Jonathon Brannon bought tickets

CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill chimed in: 'If you call the police on an 8 year old Black child selling water, you’re saying that you don’t care if that child lives or dies. It’s that simple.' 

Actress Gabrielle Union commented: 'This woman asks to speak to somebody's manager on the daily. She permanently wears folks OUT'.

Magnolia Oakland, a dispensary that carries TreatWell's products, said in a statement that it had immediately dropped the company's products upon learning of the video.

'After seeing this video of their CEO, calling the police on an 8 year old entrepreneur selling water on a hot day, we decided without hesitation that we could no longer patronize her company,' the dispensary said.

'Treatwell was one of our best selling products but to us, Integrity is always above profits.'

It's not clear whether they will reinstate the products now Ettel has stepped down. 

Raj says her cousin, Jordan, is fine and continued to sell water bottles. 

 

The person who posted the video also posted a split image of the woman who called cops on the people having a barbecue (left) in April, and the woman allegedly calling cops today (right)

The person who posted the video also posted a split image of the woman who called cops on the people having a barbecue (left) in April, and the woman allegedly calling cops today (right)

One viewer, musician Jonathon Brannon, was so moved by the video, he decided to buy Jordan four tickets to Disneyland.

A video posted by Raj shows her learning of the tickets and jumping up and down screaming in excitement.

Several people on Twitter compared Ettel to the woman who called 911 in April over a group of black people illegally barbecuing in a park in Oakland, California.

The unidentified woman in the viral video said they were using a charcoal grill instead of a non-charcoal grill in one of Lake Merritt's designated grilling zones.

A bystander named Michelle Snider, noticed the commotion and confronted the woman for 'harassing' the family, camera in hand, to record the 25-minute verbal altercation. 

The woman who called 911 in that case was dubbed 'bbqbecky' online, in reference to the derisive term 'Beckys' for white women.

Jordan's mother, Erin Austin, has since set up a GoFundMe page called 'The Water Stand Project,' to help her daughter go to college and create resources for underprivileged kids in the San Francisco area.

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911 call confirms 'Permit Patty' called police on black girl selling water

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