One Direction Tweet Turns Dad Into Twitter Sensation

A 50-year-old lamp builder accidently wins over the boy band's fans on Twitter.

ByABC News
November 25, 2014, 10:33 AM

— -- Millions of crazed One Direction fans turned their attention away from their beloved boys during the American Music Awards Sunday for this guy: Jerry Riekert, who is old enough to be their dad.

Riekert, 50, sent one tweet that won them over.

“Not fan of @onedirection being 50yr old man, but they can actually sing #amas,” he wrote.

One Direction fans immediately blindsided him, retweeting him 11,000 times and favoriting the tweet nearly 9,500 thousand times.

Long Island, New York, dad was confused and followed up his first tweet, writing, “How did the One Direction fans find me I'm just a simple man from New York who makes lamps.”

The fans took his second sentiment even further, using the hashtag #jerrythelampbuilder.

“He built us lamps when no one else would,” one fan tweeted.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” wrote another.

Another fan even created a meme. And it doesn’t hurt that Riekert’s job plays well off the boy band’s hit song lyric, “Baby you light up my world like nobody else.”

And like any good businessman, Riekert is jumping at the chance to quite literally light up people’s lives by promoting the very lamps that keep him simple, even offering to pay homage to the fabulous five that made him famous.

“I will make a 1 direction inspired lamp if a member of one direction notices my lamps,” he wrote.

The story of his tweets are now certain to go down as a memorable story in his life.