What if your phone wouldn’t stop ringing? Like, ever? Imagine your cellphone blowing up—nonstop, from strangers all around the world—because your kids pulled the ultimate prank. We’re not talking about a prank call or some lame whoopee cushion. Oh no. This is a billboard, baby. A giant one, just outside Atlantic City, telling the world to wish you a happy birthday—complete with your photo and personal cell number. What could go wrong, right? Well, ask Chris Ferry, a New Jersey dad who went from regular guy to international sensation faster than you can say, “I wish I’d thought of this first.”

The saga of the ‘Billboard Dad’ began in the most innocent way. Chris Ferry Jr. and his brother Michael had always enjoyed messing with their dad, especially during their childhood trips to ice hockey tournaments. As kids, they’d often pull a classic move: they’d tell the waitstaff at Applebee’s it was their dad’s birthday just to see the look on his face when the whole restaurant sang to him. “My brother and I always traveled together playing ice hockey and would enjoy our Applebee’s dinners with our dad and all the other hockey dads on the road,” Chris Jr. told NBC News. “Most importantly we loved pranking him and telling the waiter or waitress it was his birthday.”

Fast forward to 2019, and the brothers, now living in Florida, wanted to make their dad’s 62nd birthday one to remember. But this time, they were taking the prank to a whole new level. What’s a better way to embarrass your dad than having an entire restaurant sing to him? How about having the entire state of New Jersey call him instead?

Chris Jr. said to NBC News, “I called my brother and I asked him, ‘Why don’t we put a billboard right outside of Atlantic City saying, ‘Wish my dad a Happy Birthday.’ And he loved it. He started dying laughing.” So, that’s exactly what they did.

The billboard went up on Black Horse Pike, just outside Atlantic City, featuring an oversized photo of their dad’s face and a simple message:

WISH MY DAD A HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Love, Your Sons.

Oh, and for good measure, they added his phone number, too. You know, in case a few people wanted to call. But “a few people” turned out to be the understatement of the century.

As soon as the billboard went live, Chris Sr.’s phone started ringing off the hook. Texts, calls, voicemails—all flooding in from total strangers. “I think I’ve had 15,000 calls, texts, and Facebook hits in the last three days,” Ferry Sr. told Fox News. It wasn’t just locals driving down the highway near the casinos, either. The messages came from places like Luxembourg, the Philippines, and Kenya. Kenya!

The calls weren’t just simple “happy birthdays” either. Some people shared deeply personal stories with him. “They get me on the phone, they want to talk to me, they want to tell me about their most memorable birthday,” Ferry told Fox News. One caller told him they had lost their father recently and tried calling to share the billboard story, but their dad didn’t pick up. So, naturally, they called Chris Ferry to share instead. “People say, ‘I lost my dad last year.’ I had one guy tell me, ‘I tried to call my father to tell him about the billboard and he didn’t pick up, so I figured I would call you to talk to you and now you’re not picking up.’”

The whole ordeal was overwhelming but also heartwarming for Chris. While his phone was practically useless for weeks—his voicemail, constantly full—he still appreciated the thought behind the prank. “It was a neat idea. I wish I would’ve thought of it,” he admitted to Fox News. For the first few days, it was all in good fun. “He’s trying to answer as many texts as he can, he’s answering phone calls. He’s actually really getting a kick out of this,” Chris Jr. shared in an interview with NBC News.

But soon, the sheer volume of messages got so out of control that Ferry Sr. had to change his voicemail. His new voicemail message began with, “Thank you for calling to wish me a happy birthday, I really very much appreciate it…”

Chris’s actual birthday was March 16, but the billboard stayed up until April 6. His phone continued its marathon of birthday wishes for weeks. When all was said and done, Ferry estimated he had received over 250,000 calls and texts from people all over the world. By then, it was clear that the prank had spiraled far beyond what the brothers had ever anticipated.

After it all calmed down, Chris decided to respond in the most appropriate way possible: with another billboard. He rented the same space and replaced the birthday message with an enormous “Thank You” to everyone who reached out. The new sign read, “Thank you for the birthday wishes. Over 250K calls worldwide. Love, #BillboardDad,” accompanied by—you guessed it—his face once again.

But this wasn’t just about the prank anymore. In the end, Ferry Sr. used his viral moment to highlight something deeper. “What I’m really trying to do is take the minute, that I have of fame here, to call attention that there’s really much more good in the world than there is bad,” he told NBC News.

In a world where your birthday can go viral, maybe there’s hope after all. Whether it was someone sharing a personal birthday story or connecting over a lost loved one, people reached out from every corner of the globe. And maybe that’s the real gift his sons gave him after all.

See the infamous billboard for yourself in the video below: