A San Francisco woman whom the internet nicknamed “Permit Patty” lied when she told the San Francisco Chronicle that she was only pretending to call police on an 8-year-old-girl selling bottled water without a permit in front of her house.

Alison Ettel has since publicly apologized for the incident.

But KTVU has obtained the 911 call audio from the city of San Francisco in which Ettel is caught on tape saying, “I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that’s selling water across from the ballpark.”



She then requests “someone to talk to about that” and the 911 dispatcher tells Ettel to hold while he transfers her to San Francisco Police. The brief call cuts off while Ettel is holding 17 seconds after the transfer is initiated. It’s unclear whether Ettel hung up, or whether her call was accidentally disconnected.

According to San Francisco Police Dispatch records, the call was recorded as a report of a “suspicious person.” KTVU has confirmed the number from which the call was placed is Ettel’s cell phone.


Ettel, who recently resigned as CEO of a medical cannabis company, made national headlines after cell phone video of the incident went viral.

WATCH: Woman appears to call police on 8-year-old girl selling water

Ettel said the girl and her mother had been making noise for several hours and she lost her temper. She said she first tried to get the building’s security to do something, but then got into an argument with the girl’s mother that escalated to the exchange seen in the video.

Erin Austin, the girl's mother, took the video last week and posted it on Instagram. She said the woman who appeared to call police was upset that her daughter was selling water in front of their home near AT&T Park without a permit.

USA Today reported that Austin recently lost her job, and her daughter was trying to raise money for a trip to Disneyland.



KTVU tried to reach Ettel on her cell phone number repeatedly but all our calls were sent to a full voice mailbox. She did not immediately respond to text messages requesting an interview either.