A California artist and influencer named Chapman Hamborg, a 33-year-old from Huntington Beach, recently found himself at the center of a hilarious and bewildering neighborhood mix-up. What was meant to be a simple stroll with his newborn daughter turned into a full-blown police visit when a concerned neighbor mistook him for a homeless man carrying a “stolen baby.”
In an TikTok video that has since gone viral, Hamborg set the scene for his more than 50 million viewers. The text overlay read: “POV: Your neighbor calls the cops, reporting you as a homeless man with a stolen baby.” In the clip, Chapman is dressed in a baggy brown Patagonia jacket, stained jeans, and well-worn slippers, with his long hair tied up in a bun. He is calmly walking around the neighborhood with his infant daughter snug in her carrier.
“I take our newborn daughter for walks around our neighborhood while wearing her in the baby carrier multiple times a day,” he explained in the caption. “I am surprised all of my neighbors haven’t seen me and recognize me by now.” It was a warm afternoon in Huntington Beach, and Chapman said these walks give his wife, Hannah, a much-needed break. Little did he know, one of those routine outings would trigger a neighbor’s alarm.
Later that afternoon, Chapman returned home only to find police officers waiting at his door. In the video, an officer approaches him and asks, “Were you going for a walk?” The next line was the kicker: “Is this baby or something? Your neighbors saw you and thought you were homeless.”
California Man Mistaken For Homeless Kidnapper During Walk With Newborn Daughter
Chapman’s wife, Hannah, can be heard off-camera reacting in disbelief. “Stop! No, they didn’t,” she says as Chapman relays the story. The officer then clarifies, “This lady lives a street over. She saw you, she got worried, so she followed you and then saw you walk into here.”
Chapman took the entire ordeal in stride. In his TikTok post, he joked, “Apparently I need to work on my appearance. I guess being an artist or a tired dad isn’t a valid excuse. If you saw me, would you have thought I was homeless?”
Many of the thousands of comments on the video agreed that Chapman’s laid-back, creative style could easily be mistaken for a rough look. One person wrote, “Is looking homeless a crime?” Another stated, “Normalize tired dads walking with their new babies.”
Despite the confusion, Chapman emphasized that the responding officer was “very friendly and kind,” which helped him keep his guard down. “I already kind of had a hint that there must have been some sort of miscommunication,” he told People.
Chapman Plans To Thank The Woman Who Called Police
Instead of harboring resentment toward his vigilant neighbor, Chapman saw an opportunity to foster community. He plans to send her a friendly letter, expressing gratitude rather than anger. “I would like to use it as an opportunity to get to know my neighbor and to be thankful that she’s looking out for our kids or the neighborhood,” he said. “Rather than, you know, turning it into a divisive thing.”
This episode is not just a funny anecdote, it also highlights larger social dynamics. In influencer culture, appearance can be everything. Chapman’s unfiltered style, which included a worn jacket, tattered slippers, and a baby carrier, clashes with mainstream expectations. Yet in the same breath, this incident is a reminder of our community’s mixed perceptions of homelessness. What one person sees as concern for a child, another might see as suspicion of a crime.
Social media reactions have ranged from outright amusement to more serious reflections on how quickly assumptions are made. Some users wrote that they understood the neighbor’s worry; after all, spotting a ragged-looking man with a baby could raise alarms.
Chapman Hamborg Says He’s Just ‘A Tired Dad’
Others took the chance to call out how easily we jump to conclusions based on someone’s clothes, noting that Chapman looks nothing like the stereotypical homeless figure in their minds. One user summed up the episode by saying, “This is a perfect example of why we need more empathy and less judgment.”
For Chapman and Hannah Hamborg, the incident will certainly be a family story they tell for years to come. What started as a simple walk ended with laughter, introspection, and a renewed sense of neighborhood camaraderie.
The California influencer and new dad’s plan to send a thank-you letter is a testament to his laid-back attitude and genuine goodwill. In the end, a bizarre misunderstanding became a viral sensation, reminding everyone that sometimes you really do look like what you’re not, and that’s okay, as long as the neighborhood has your best interest at heart.
Nina Franklin 
Sofia Bassett 
