Ben Patterson became an overnight internet celebrity after he posted a hilarious series of texts to his wife, Stephanie, on Facebook, documenting what happened after their son, Declan, threw up in the car.
A self-professed “sympathetic vomiter,” Patterson frantically messaged Stephanie that he was “dry heaving” on someone’s lawn in Burlingame, California, when the owner of the home came out and asked if he was drunk driving with his kids in tow. In the next update, Patterson announced that the cops showed up and demanded he take a breathalyzer test.
But the California-based entrepreneur made a confession on Tuesday, May 17. “I just wanted to clarify that while the rest of the story is true, the part about the police coming and the breathalyzer was just something I added for dramatic effect for my wife in the moment,” Patterson wrote, above a photo of his adorable son, Declan. “Now that the story has blown up, I wouldn’t want anyone to think badly of the Burlingame PD because I was joking! The truth counts. I actually went down to Burlingame PD and chatted with them and we had a good laugh about things.”
He added: “The ‘barf heard round the world’ was bad, but it didn’t include a breathalyzer!”
As for why his wife ignored all 21 of Patterson’s texts, he says there is a good reason for that. “She was in a really loud restaurant and didn’t hear her phone until they got up to leave,” Patterson tells Us Weekly. “As soon as she saw the messages, she called!”
