Audio of 911 call contradicts 'Permit Patty's' claims she only pretended to call police

Alison Ettel, CEO and founder of TreatWell, laughs during a consultation at her apartment complex in San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. Alison Ettel, CEO and founder of TreatWell, laughs during a consultation at her apartment complex in San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. Photo: Connor Radnovich / The Chronicle 2015 Buy photo Photo: Connor Radnovich / The Chronicle 2015 Image 1 of / 34 Caption Close Audio of 911 call contradicts 'Permit Patty's' claims she only pretended to call police 1 / 34 Back to Gallery

Newly released audio of a 911 call contradicts a San Francisco woman's claims that she was pretending to call police on a girl selling bottled water by her home.

Alison Ettel apologized and stepped down as CEO of cannabis firm TreatWell Health after she was outed as the white woman caught on a viral video supposedly calling police on an 8-year-old African American girl for selling water without a permit last week. Social media users accused Ettel of being racist, dubbing her "Permit Patty."

On Saturday, Ettel told The Chronicle that she only pretended to call police after an argument with the girl's mother escalated, a claim debunked by the 911 audio, obtained Thursday by KTVU.

READ ALSO: 'Permit Patty' resigns from cannabis firm amid backlash from fellow entrepreneurs

In the call, Ettel tells the 911 dispatcher: "I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that's selling water across from the ballpark" and asks for "someone to talk to about that." The dispatcher asks Ettel to hold as he transfers her to the San Francisco Police Department. The call ends after a brief hold. It is not known whether Ettel hung up or was disconnected by accident.

Dispatch records referred to the call as a "suspicious person" report, KTVU said. The news station also confirmed it was placed from Ettel's cell phone number.

The episode erupted Saturday when a video posted to Instagram the day before showed Ettel apparently calling the police outside a South of Market apartment building.

"This woman don't want to let a little girl sell some water. She be calling police on an 8-year-old little girl," said the girl's mother, who was recording the video. "You can hide all you want. The whole world gon' see ya, boo."

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"Yeah, and, um, illegally selling water without a permit?" Ettel can be heard saying on the phone.

Ettel told The Chronicle that the girl and her mother, later identified as Erin Austin, had been making noise for several hours and that she lost her temper. Ettel said she first asked building security to intervene, but got into an argument with Austin that escalated into the exchange captured on the video.

Austin said the police never arrived Friday. An SFPD spokesperson said officers had not had recent contact with an 8-year-old girl.

READ ALSO: Man calls BART police on person eating a burrito on train

The incident follows a slew of recent viral encounters in which a Bay Area resident was accused of racism or discrimination.

Just three weeks ago, a white man dismantled a black homeless person's encampment in Oakland and tossed some of his belongings into Lake Merritt. Then in April, a woman dubbed #BBQBecky made national headlines after calling police on an African American family barbecuing at Lake Merritt in Oakland. The incident inspired a nationwide "barbecuing while black" movement.

Chronicle staff writer Evan Sernoffsky and SFGATE staff writer Filipa Ioannou contributed to this report.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.