Unhappy neighbour calls police over children's lemonade stand
A pair of local police officers who were called to shut down a group of kids’ lemonade stand are being praised online for buying a drink and supporting the young entrepreneurs instead.
The kids who live in Newburgh, in the US state of New York, usually spend their summer breaks swimming at the neighbourhood pool — except for Mondays and Tuesdays when its gates are closed.
Looking for something to occupy their time, six-year-old Elajah asked her mum if she could start a lemonade stand with her friends.
“Elajah got together a group of friends while I brought out a table that I had been planning to throw away and bought some mixes from Dollar Tree,” mum Shanice Sgorbissa told Yahoo.
“It turned out way better than we thought.
“They each had jobs. Two boys stood holding up a sign, two girls were assigned to pouring lemonade, and another girl went up to the cars.”
While the local kids were enjoying running their roadside business, one unknown resident was less than pleased with the lemonade stand, especially during rush hour.
They reported it to the Newburgh Police Department for causing some traffic, asking law enforcement to shut it down.
Ms Sgorbissa and Whitney Glover, another local mum whose daughter Charley was helping sell lemonade, were standing outside with the children when a Newburgh Police Ford Explorer pulled over by their stand.
“When they first got there I was nervous. I didn’t want them to shut the kids’ lemonade stand,” Ms Sgorbissa said.
However, what officers Thomas O'Connell Jr. and Clayton Dubois did next left both Glover and Sgorbissa pleasantly surprised.
“The officer comes out and says, ‘Would you believe that someone called me about kids in the middle of the street selling lemonade? I’m not going to shut you down, I’m actually going to buy a cup,” Ms Glover told Yahoo.
“They were interacting with the kids and making them feel happy. They told them they were doing a good job and to keep it up.”
Ms Sgorbissa and Ms Glover said they were extremely appreciative of the officers for being so “sweet” with the kids instead of ruining the fun.
Ms Glover took to Facebook to express her gratitude for the local police officers.
“So the kids where I live decided to have a lemonade stand during rush hour. Smart idea,” Ms Glover wrote in a Facebook post.
“However some bitter person decided to call the cops on them. Instead of the officers shutting it down they decided to have a cup themselves.”
One commented it must have been a “miserable” person who called the police on kids selling lemonade.
Others praised the officers for supporting the children and not shutting them down.
The Newburgh Police Department responded on Facebook that they were “proud” their officers had a “positive impact on the community, especially the children”.
The Newburgh Police Department did not immediately respond to Yahoo’s request for comment.
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