Thread: Police Bust Lemonade Stands Nationwide

By Molly Fergus | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 6 hrs ago

July should be prime lemonade stand season, but it's been a rough summer for the industry.

Police busted three Georgia girls for selling glasses of icy lemonade outside their house last Friday. The trio was trying to raise money for tickets to a local waterpark, but they committed one infraction: operating a small business without a permit.

The young entrepreneurs' town, Midway, Ga., demands that every stand pay $50 a day for a food or business permit, according to MSNBC.com. "We had told them, 'We understand you guys are young, but still, you're breaking the law, and we can't let you do it anymore,'" Police Chief Kelly Morningstar said. "The law is the law, and we have to be consistent with how we enforce the laws."

Of course, the origins of the refreshing beverages were also concerning. "We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance," Morningstar said.

Luckily, the city supported girls and helped them to make proverbial lemonade out of the police chief's sour lemons '" they each received a free ticket to the waterpark.

In a Cleveland suburb earlier this month, kids operating a lemonade stand were threatened and robbed by a group of teenagers, according to the Miami Herald.

The thieves approached the stand in a rusty car and threatened to beat up the lemonade-sellers if they didn't hand over the cash, 11-year-old Omar Schpeb said in the article. The kids wisely handed over the $13.50 they earned selling lemonade; later, an anonymous donor gave the police station $20 to recoup the kids' losses.

And during the U.S. Open in June, Montgomery County, M.D. officials actually fined some young whippersnappers $500 for setting up a high-end lemonade stand (bottled lemonade and other drinks were on offer) near the tournament, according to NPR.

The proceeds were going to charity, and officials eventually permitted the kids to keep selling '" as long as they relocated down the road a bit.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-bust-le...185900630.html

comments

"The kids wisely handed over the $13.50 they earned selling lemonade..."

You know the world is screwed up when cops and criminals both treat you the same way.

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It's alright for Mexicans to sell fruit and run taco trucks without a permit, but innocent kids running a lemonade stand? I'm so glad I don't have any kids! I would sure hate to bring someone into a world as messed up as this! And people robbing lemonade stands? How low can people get? Unbelieveable! (And only in America).

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Kids selling lemonaid can get fined but kids breaking into a house get a slap on the wrist. Maybe the police or city has taught these young kids next time you need a little bit of money don't try to sell lemonaid just steal it like the other kids.

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Drugs, illegal guns, stolen property of all kinds ... no problem.... but we must put a stop to those truly evil lemonade stands... they have too much sugar and contribute to the childhood obesity problem in this country.

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We can't track down illegal immigrants breaking federal law, but we can crack down on children violating an obscure local ordinance.

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A lemonade stand is a great way to start teaching kids about running a business. For example, how to arrange kickbacks with the police, being extorted....er....taxed by the government, and being shut down for trying to make a legal dollar.

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Lemons are a gateway drug........

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they'll go after kids with lemonade stands, why not charge the drug dealers the same way, no wonder kids today don't want to be creative.

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Police Chief Kelly Morningstar said. "The law is the law, and we have to be consistent with how we enforce the laws."

... Except for when it comes to illegals...

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

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It's alright for Mexicans to sell fruit and run taco trucks without a permit, but innocent kids running a lemonade stand? I'm so glad I don't have any kids! I would sure hate to bring someone into a world as messed up as this! And people robbing lemonade stands? How low can people get? Unbelieveable! (And only in America).

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Drugs, illegal guns, stolen property of all kinds ... no problem.... but we must put a stop to those truly evil lemonade stands... they have too much sugar and contribute to the childhood obesity problem in this country.


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Police Chief Kelly Morningstar said. "The law is the law, and we have to be consistent with how we enforce the laws."

... Except for when it comes to illegals...[/i]

We had an incident here where they robbed the Girl Scout's Cookie Booth .... that is a lowlife to rob a group of 8 year olds.

Well, I have to say I am too much of a germaphobe to drink the lemonade these kids offer... because I don't know who made it, if they were clean... blah blah blah... but we almost always stop and buy from them anyways... because it is one of those things from my childhood that was actually a bright spot and want to pass it on. Hubby drinks it, so it all works out.

Massachusetts State Police Shutdown Twelve-Year-Old’s Green Tea Stand
By E.D. Kain | Forbes – Thu, Aug 25, 2011

Well it’s not exactly lemonade but it’ll do. Christopher Carr’s twelve-year-old stepson had set up a smoothie and green-tea stand near their house when they moved back to the States after the earthquake in Japan. After they’d set up shop, Christopher took his daughter back inside to get some lunch, leaving his son to manage things at the stand.

After my daughter finished eating and as we approached the end of our street where the drink stand was, I could see from afar that the sign was pulled up and put away, the cooler was shut with everything which we had so carefully arranged on the tray table put away, and my stepson was huddled up and sitting on the rail, staring out between his knees at the ocean.

"What happened?" I asked when I got down there. I wondered if he had gotten discouraged that no one was buying his drinks or maybe that no one could understand his accent. Or maybe he was just lonely down there by himself.

"The police told me to pack up and go home," he said. Or, more accurately I discovered after making a few phone calls, the town police swung by and wished him good luck, and then afterwards, "someone in brown" came by and made my stepson stop selling drinks at the end of our street, because this required a permit, and my stepson did not have a permit to sell drinks.

After hearing a little more from my stepson and talking to the town police, I discovered that it was the Massachusetts State Police that broke up our lemonade stand. After attempting several times to contact the State Police, I reached only answering machines. Apparently, having someone on call on weekends is not in the Massachusetts State Police's budget (but breaking up lemonade stands is somehow cost-effective).

This may be the first case of state police shutting down a kid’s green-tea stand, but the list of lemonade stands being closed down by various government agencies is long and growing.

http://news.yahoo.com/massachusetts-...212607797.html