Police Shut Down 2 Little Girls' Lemonade Stand Because They Didn't Have A Permit

Remember the good old days when you could set up a cardboard stand outside and sell old-fashioned lemonade without being shut down by the police? Two sisters in Overton, Texas, got into the entrepreneurial spirit by setting up a lemonade stand in front of their house. The girls, Andria and Zoey Green, were trying to raise $105 to buy their dad a Father's Day gift: a trip to the water park Splash Kingdom.

"We had kettle corn and lemonade," the girls told local news station KLTV. "The lemonade was for 50 cents and the kettle corn was a dollar, but if you got both it was a dollar."

The pint-sized businesswomen were up and running for an hour and had already made $25 for their father's gift when their stand was approached by local police officers. Police told their mother that they would need a health permit, or else they would have to shut down. According to Texas House Bill 970, or the Texas Baker's Bill, the sale of food that requires time and/or temperature control to prevent spoilage is prohibited without a health permit. That means that, by law, setting up a stand with a jug of lemonade and selling to passers-by is illegal without both a Health Department inspection and a permit.

"I think that's ridiculous. I think they're 7 and 8 and they're just trying to make money for their own cause," the girls' mother, Sandy Evans, said. But Overton police are insisting that the law is the law, and no one — not even 7 and 8 year old girls — are above it.

Sadly, this isn't the first time police have intercepted kids selling lemonade.

The sisters, according to KLTV, will set up their stand again this weekend, but will take donations instead.