Who’s Your Daddy? Mobile Truck Offers DNA Tests to Go
In what may be a first anywhere, a “Who’s Your Daddy”
truck is cruising New York City selling DNA tests to people who want to confirm
their child’s paternity or even whether their parents are biologically related
to them.
The brown and white RV, which is bedecked in eye catching
signs advertising its services, is more than just a moving billboard, according
to driver and operator Jared Rosenthal. “The RV is set up to be a drug testing
clinic and a DNA testing clinic,” he told ABC News. “It’s essentially a mobile
office so while we’re working people will walk up and ask questions and
sometimes even take a test right on board.”
Rosenthal, who works at mobile and clinic based testing
company Health Street, came up with the idea for the truck himself. ”Necessity
is the mother of invention,” he said. ”I
couldn’t afford to rent an office, so I thought, we can convert the RV to a
mobile office. People love the artwork–it makes them smile and they share it
with their friends on social media and get in touch with people who maybe do
need DNA tests.”
But it’s not all smiles aboard the Who’s Your Daddy
Truck, which often plays host to the full spectrum of human emotions. “DNA
really gets at a person’s identity, it gets to the core of their identity, who
your parents are, who your children are, how you define yourself ethnically and
culturally.” Rosenthal said “The RV is a little more intimate than a clinic,
clients tend to talk more they tell us things, we experience some of these life-changing
moments with them.”
Rosenthal brought up the story of one woman in her early
20′s who came in for a test, only to find out that the people she believed to
be her father and her three half-sisters was not related to her at all. In
fact, the test revealed she was from an entirely different ethnic background.
“When she found out her father wasn’t her biological father it totally rocked
her identity to the core,” he said.
He recounted meeting an 18-year-old woman from another
state who had contacted the man she believed to be her father living in New
York. A DNA test at the truck proved it was true, bringing a broken family back
together. “He began to form a relationship with this woman and it was great.”
Rosenthal said. “They lost 18 years but they found each other.”
Drama aside, Rosenthal insists that the truck is much
more than a mobile Maury, providing a service that is “very approachable, very
accessible, and very available to the community.”
The DNA, drug, and alcohol tests, which range in price from
$79 to$599 are available at the truck or at local health street clinics.
Although based in New York, the organization has partnered with out-of-state
clinics and the US Consulate to provide testing in the event that one or more
of the parties may live out of the state or country.
For more information on the Who’s Your Daddy Truck and
Health Street visit their website, www.health-street.net
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