An American man from New Jersey has received thousands of birthday phone calls and texts after his sons put up a billboard inviting strangers to wish him well.
The sign, which greets motorists in Linwood, New Jersey, asks strangers to “wish my dad a happy birthday” alongside Chris Ferry’s mobile number.
The sign is a practical joke set up by his two sons who live in Florida. The two men told KYW-News that they wanted it to be a “birthday for him to remember“.
“We thought it was going to be a local joke, people would call,” his son Chris says.
“I guess when we put it on social media, that’s when it really started going crazy.”
Ferry first became aware of the prank after he received his first text from a man named Nick, according to Florida ABC News affiliate. He had asked the man how he came to know about his upcoming birthday.
“I saw it on a billboard,” the man answers.
Mr Ferry said he has received tens of thousands of texts from around the world, including the Philippines, Kenya, Luxembourg, Ireland, Guatemala, Nepal and Australia.
Some people tell him stories of their own fathers, he said, or talk about other people they know that share a birthday with him.
“I can see my texts go from 10 or 20 to over 600 in a matter of minutes,” Ferry says, adding that he has not “been able to use my phone in a normal way“.
Mr Ferry, who strangers have been calling “the billboard dad“, has changed his voicemail message to “thank you for calling to wish me a happy birthday, I really, very much appreciate it...”
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