Police shut down 7-year-old girl's lemonade stand, demand permit

Sisters plan to re-open it on Saturday anyway

(Sandi Evans/KLTV)

Fresh from drawing guns at a pool party, Texas police are now raiding kids' lemonade stands.

Seven and eight-year-old sisters Andria and Zoey Green set up 'Green Girls Lemonade Stand!!!' to raise some money for a Father's Day present, but Overton officers soon put a stop to it.

"We were trying to raise some money to take our dad to Splash Kingdom," Andria told KLTV.

Zoey added of their business plan: "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."

The girls were in business for about an hour before police showed up.

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"A code enforcement officer and the chief, she called me to the side and said we needed a permit," mum Sandi recalled.

Officers agreed to waive the $150 penalty charge, but closed the stand lest it threaten the Coca-Cola Company's monopoly on lemonade.

"It is a lemonade stand but they also have a permit that they are required to get," Police Chief Clyde Carter said.

Texas House Bill 970 prohibits the sale of food which requires time or temperature control to prevent spoilage, sadly including lemonade.

"We have to follow by the state health guidelines," Carter added. "They have to have a permit if they're going to do the lemonade stands."

"I think that's ridiculous," mum Sandi said. "They're 7 and 8 and they're just trying to make money for their own cause."

The Green sisters defiantly plan to re-open their lemonade stand this Saturday from 10am until midday, albeit this time shrewdly only accepting donations.

@christophhooton