Cops shut down little girl's lemonade stand
 

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Cops shut down little girl’s lemonade stand
Patrick Taney

NAPLES, June 18, 2003 - A six-year-old girl was heartbroken when her small lemonade stand was put out of business because she didn’t have a temporary business permit. A neighbor called the police and her stand was shut down.



"Gotta get ready for the sale,” said Avigayil.

Even though she’s only 6 years old, Avigayil prepares for another day at work.

"We like making money at our lemonade stand. We want it to stay cold so they can have cold lemonade on hot days,” she said.

A young entrepreneur who does the cleaning, even the advertising - and it is paying off.

"We are making lots of tips in our tip jar,” said Avigayil.

But a few days ago, Avigayil and her friends were put out of business by a neighbor.

"We didn't have a permit so she called the cops,” said Avigayil.

The police arrived and shut her down.

"We had to take down our lemonade stand,” said Avigayil.

Abagail did not have a temporary business permit, which is technically a city violation.

"So we had to do something else to play,” said Avigayil.

"I was kind of shocked because I didn't know we needed a permit for 6 year old girls to sell lemonade,” said K.C. Shaw, Avigayil’s mom.

According to the city, they have to act on a formal complaint.

"Normally we don't get involved in it but once we do get a formal request we must take action,” said Al Hogrefe of the city of Naples.

So Avigayil’s mom went to the city code enforcement office with wallet in hand, prepared to buy a permit.

"$35 every single time for a single use,” said Shaw.

Not wanting to be sour, the city played Mr. Niceguy.

"No we did not charge her, no,” said Hogrefe.

They did finally get the permit.

"Basically a blank check to have as many lemonade stands as we can stand,” said Shaw.

So Abagail is back in business and learned laws can be tough, even for a six year old's lemonade stand.

Shaw said the police officers who shut down the stand felt terrible, but they had to do their job. One of the officers even bought a glass of lemonade from Avigayil.

Abu is very territorial about his lemonade sales. I suspect Mayor Quimby will get a rather irate complaint letter now.

Avigayil?

People gotta stop trying to be so creative when they name their kids. Just winds up making them sound ridiculous....

Whose the jerk neighbor?

Must of figured the competition for his lemonade stand was too tough with a six-year girl.

When I was about ten years old, we set up a lemonade stand on the sidewalk in front of our house. But we didn't sell many glasses, and after a few hours, we took it down. I think that was the first time I realized that the world doesn't give a damn about you or anything you do.

I whole-heartedly agree.

Actually, as an African-American, I more than agree. I've met so many Shaquandas, Louquells, ReyShakas that it makes me sick. I've got no problem with African names. But do ten minutes of research and find a real name and use the proper spelling.

Come on, Skydog, HFP, etc.-- Can I get a witness?!

That's insane. The neighbor should be beaten by midgets and then forced to drink a glass of lemonade that I'm certain the other people in the neighborhood would be more than happy to help make.

if you are 6, you shouldn't be "learning" how to do a job or run a goddamn business. go do something fun. indoctrinating kids in the ways of capitalism. ack. ;)

Amen. Preach on.

Well, I think we must have finally captured any Al-Qaeda operatives left in this country, since the police have now found the time to bust up lemonade stand operations that children are throwing together.

Maybe she fits a profile of some new terrorist group. The 6 year old lemonade mafia. Don't get on their bad side, that lemon juice stings when they throw it in your eyes.

This is the new way Al-Qaeda is going to raise funding, but the police are onto it.

I'm glad little Massengil was able to reopen her lemonade stand.

I think the neighbor who called needs to be publicly flogged.

Dola -

What they should have done is give away the lemonade so they aren't technically selling anything, and just keep the tip ("donation") jar out.

The neighbor, not the police is the real villain in this one. What a complete bastard.

TroyF

Yeah, if the police receive a formal complaint, I don't think they have much choice but to address it.

Only when it is easy to do. Get hit by a drunk driver, and give the police a full description of the driver (what you could see of him), the vehicle, and the license plate. They then sit on it for 3 months and get nasty with you anytime you call to check on the progress of it to the point that you give up bothering. 5 years later, still nothing has happened with it and the police have never given you a straight answer on what happened with it. I'm left to guess the guy was an off-duty cop, a politician, or family of one or the other.

Aren't there ways of tracking down whom a license plate belongs to? I'd think about doing that, and/or alerting some local investigative reporters to see if they want to take a look into the story (they might at least follow up on the license plate to see if the driver was anyone notable).

I did not think about that back when it might have been useful to pursue it. Too much time has passed now.

I think police take action on the easy stuff, and don't get around to the hard ones unless some politician with control over them is pushing it hard enough. I know several police departments around Atlanta won't even come to the scene of burglaries unless you swear to them that the dollar value of the losses is over $1,000. You get a free ride as long as you do not take too much, apparently.

Just like they won't investigate threats of bodily harm until someone has actually been murdered....(I know that in general the law enforcement system is overburdened, but their focus of their efforts is often interesting).

Yeah. Shutting down the lemonade stand should mean there are absolutely no other crimes or complaints to resolve in that area. Must be a great place to live if the worst thing happening is a lemonade stand operating without a permit.

So, what if the 6 year old is a real Dennis the Menace like figure in her neighborhood? What if the caller had a grudge against the kids' parents? What if the caller had a rival lemonade stand set up in their driveway but couldn't stand watching that annoying little cutesy kid with the effed up name taking all of my... I mean, their... profits?

-Butter"IliketovacationinNaples"_of_69

What about it? My contention is that the police should have run out of real crimes to deal with before they go after the lemonade stand. There's nothing wrong with that. I am advocating them setting real priorities.

probably a slow day around the office... and it's not like it took them more than 10 whole minutes to shut the thing down

That neighbor is evil!!!

I had a neighbor who had a cat named "Ashes". It was the cutest little cat and was very friendly. Some jerk down the street called the animal control people and had them inform my neighbor that they either had to keep the cat indoors or in their back yard, or they would have to get rid of the cat. *sniff sniff* I miss that cat. Jerk neighbor down the street! He's evil too!

Oh my. Hell yes.

This is also one of my biggest pet peeves as well.

"A six-year-old girl was heartbroken when her small lemonade stand was put out of business because she didn’t have a temporary business permit. A neighbor called the police and her stand was shut down."

Looks like we have a contendor for this years Worst Person award. What a jackass.