Neighbors See Man Walking With Baby, Immediately Call the Cops

Newsweek

09-05-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
A dad out walking with his newborn daughter had a visit from police officers after a neighbor called to say they had seen a "homeless person with a baby."
Chapman Hamborg is an artist based in Huntington Beach, California, where he lives with his wife, Hannah, three sons and 2-month-old daughter Florence. He has made a habit of walking their newborn around the block in her baby carrier.
"Since she was about a week old, I started taking her on walks at all hours of the day or night," Hamborg told Newsweek. "Whenever she is having a hard time getting back to sleep and being fussy, I put her in the baby carrier and take her for walks around my neighborhood to comfort her, help her go back to sleep, and to help my wife get some rest."
Walking around the block is standard practice for new parents and not something Hamborg had given much thought to. It is something he did with all three of his sons, and he said he takes Hannah for these walks anywhere up to three times a day with no issue.
This time was different, though. When Hamborg returned home from this latest walk, he had company. "I did not notice anything wrong. I just did my walk as usual," he said. 'It wasn't until my oldest son Shepherd said, 'Dad, why is there a police car out front?' that I noticed anything."
As Hamborg would soon discover in an encounter with an unnamed officer that was captured on camera in a video posted to his Instagram, @chapmanhamborg, a neighbor from next block over had become "worried" after seeing him out carrying a baby.
It emerged that the neighbor had followed Hamborg to his home in their car and then called the police, telling them, in Hamborg's words, that they had seen a "homeless person with a baby."
Obligated to follow-up, the officer in attendance asked Hamborg to produce his ID to confirm he was who he said he was. "I was shocked, and I think I felt a bit embarrassed in the moment," Hamborg said.
It would appear that his neighbor had jumped to conclusions seemingly based on the artist's appearance. Sadly, those kinds of judgments are more common than many realize.
In 2022, a study published in the Royal Society Open Science found people often have a disposition to draw significant conclusions about the traits and personalities of an individual based on little other than their facial appearance.
More than 300 participants were given a brief look at someone's face and then asked to make a series of personality judgments. While all of those involved reached some conclusions, researchers found many made extreme judgments based only on the faces presented.
Hamborg was able to laugh off what happened to him at the time, but he was still stunned at how things played out that day.
"I mean I was laughing at the whole situation because I found it funny, but also I think it was my way of coping with the shock," he said. "I just couldn't believe my own neighbor called the cops on me for this."
Hamborg said that, while the neighbor has not made any attempts at apologizing and there has been no communication between them, he would be keen to mend fences. "I might bring some cookies over with the kids and introduce ourselves," he added. "I did not see her when it all happened, but I saw her car, so now I know which house is theirs."
More than anything, Hamborg would like to get some answers to the questions that have plagued his mind since it happened. "I still feel a bit bewildered by the whole thing," he said. "Like, if she thought I was homeless, and she followed me home, then why did she still have the cops come when I arrived at my house and walked through the front door? Did she think I was squatting? It would be interesting to talk to her and kind of get a better idea of what was going through her mind."