Texas Cops Shut Down Lemonade Stand: 2 Little Girls Without Permit Forced To Close

On Saturday, cops in East Texas came under fire for doing the unthinkable: they shut down a lemonade stand operated by two sisters. And to make matters worse, the little girls simply wanted to earn money to buy their dad a nice Father’s Day gift, citing a New York Daily News report.

Overton Police Department cracked down on a roadside operation that was in business without the proper credentials. Had it been anyone other than two school girls, it would not have been a big deal. But it was, and locals are up in arms after cops closed the girls’ lemonade stand.

Andria, 7, and Zoey, 8, were in full swing with their elaborately set up stand at the corner of North Garden Road and West Henderson Street. There, they were selling ice-cold glasses of fresh lemonade and kettle corn. Their goal: to raise $125 for dear old dad.

“We were trying to raise some money to take our dad to Splash Kingdom,” Andria said.

As their mom, Sandi Evans, said, the girls are very independent and are mini entrepreneurs at heart. It was important for them to know they worked hard together to give their dad a personal gift.

“The girls are always into making their own money,” the mom said to reporters.

Zoey weighed in after their stand was abruptly shut down by local cops and health inspectors.

“We had kettle corn and lemonade. The lemonade was for 50 cents and the kettle corn was a dollar, but if you got both it was a dollar.”

For the first hour of their operation, the girls managed to sell $25 worth of product. Then, their spirits were dampened after police arrived. In the beginning, they merely wanted the girls to move closer to the curb for safety reasons. But then, things changed in a jiffy, according to Sandi.

“A code enforcement officer and the chief, she called me to the side and said we needed a permit.”

It turns out that the City was getting tough on people who were operating food-related business without an inspection. As consolation for the two sisters, officials agreed to waive the $150 fee for a “Peddler’s Permit.”

However, in order to continue the operation, they must have systems in place to keep the lemonade chilled so bacteria and pathogens won’t thrive. This requires strict time and temperature controls. After all, it was simply an outdoor crude lemonade stand, not a diner. As a consequence, the stand was shut down. The mom blasted the action by the city.

“I think that’s ridiculous. I think they’re 7 and 8 and they’re just trying to make money for their own cause.”

In a similar story reported previously by Inquisitr, a boy fared better than the two Texas girls whose lemonade stand was shut down by police. In 2013, Corbin Potter was outside a restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana selling lemonade for a good cause, when cops showed up and forced them to close their stand.

Apparently, a resident nearby complained that the little boy and his two sisters were making too much noise. But in a stroke of good fortune, the owners of the restaurant heard about the permit-less children’s stand, and decided to intervene.

They hatched a plan to allow the children to sell lemonade inside the restaurant alongside the server staff there. The plan was a success, and the money raised was donated to their targeted group: the Sick kids Hospital in Toronto.

Although cops shut down the girls’ lemonade stand, the Green sisters hatched a novel idea. They used a loophole that allows charitable projects to operate if goods are not exchanged for money. The girls decided to give away the lemonade and collect donations instead.

[Photo via Facebook]