'Permit Patty' admits she only pretended to call cops on 8-year-old selling water

(RNN) - The San Francisco woman who called the police on an 8-year-old black girl for selling bottled water without a permit didn’t actually call the cops.

“Permit Patty,” whose real name is Alison Ettel, told the San Francisco Chronicle she regrets even pretending to call the police.

“It was wrong, and I wish I could take it back,” said Ettel, who sells cannabis products for dogs. “Believe me, I wish I never had done that.”

Ettel said she lost her temper because the girl, Jordan, and her mother, Erin Austin, had been making noise for several hours.

“They were screaming about what they were selling,” Ettel told The Huffington Post. “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 tried to get the building’s security to do something, but she just ended up in an argument with the mom.

That’s when Austin pulled out her phone and began to record. She posted it to Instagram and named Ettel “Permit Patty.”

#PermitPatty trended across social media over the weekend. A lot of people compared Ettel to "BBQ Becky," a woman in Oakland who called police on a group of black people barbecuing in a park.

Austin told USA Today she had lost her job recently and Jordan was selling water to raise money for a trip to Disneyland.

As the video circulated over the weekend, support poured in from people across the country. When it caught the eye of musician Jonathan Brannon, he generous stepped in and bought Jordan four tickets to Disneyland.

"I didn't do this for recognition or notoriety for my music. I just felt like it was the right thing to do, trying to right where I saw a wrong," Brannon said in a statement on Twitter. "I want to wish 8-year-old Jordan and her family all the best and I hope they have a magical time at Disneyland."

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