TAMPA — Lucas White, 9, woke up Wednesday morning with a plan: Gather friends, make signs, collect lemons, cups and pitchers and set up a lemonade stand.

White and 10 other kids had a goal of $50 to split and use to buy toys.

By 5 p.m. they'd earned $13.53, attracting customers with music from an iPod.

Then, two customers snatched the money. And the iPod.

"Who would do that to kids?" said Lucas' mom, Jacqueline Jolly. "What is wrong with people?"

The great lemonade stand heist unfolded Wednesday at 5 p.m. in a parking lot outside Building 9 at the Livingston apartments in northern Hillsborough County, home to the young entrepreneurs.

Customer Deante Small, 19, and a girl, 16, approached the stand and placed an order, deputies reported. The two complained about the amount of lemonade poured and began to argue with the child proprietors.

This irked Lucas, according to the Sheriff's Office, which reported that he threw a cup of lemonade at the teen girl.

Lucas amended that account.

"I accidentally spilled water on her," he said.

He said she pushed him to the ground and snatched his iPod and the man grabbed a cup containing all their proceeds from 9-year-old Zytavia Goodwin.

Both suspects then fled in a car.

Lucas' mom called the police when her son ran home upset about the theft.

The two suspects were later identified and taken into custody. Small was charged with robbery by sudden snatching. The teen girl, whose name was not released, was charged with battery and petty theft.

The suspects told deputies they spent the money at Walmart. The iPod had not been recovered Thursday.

Lucas said he decided to start a lemonade stand — the first time he or his friends had done so — after his mom made him a glass of limeade.

The idea was to keep the stand open all weekend but late Wednesday night, after the theft, he lamented to his mother that he was afraid to go back to work on Thursday.

"I told him to face his fears," Jolly said. "Don't let those people scare him from having fun."

So they were back at it on Thursday and planned to be up early again today to resume sales through dusk.

Stacked on top of the table made of boxes were four sizes of cups: a free sample size, and then sizes that sold for 25 cents, 75 cents and $1.

"We take tips," yelled one of Lucas' friends.

Rather than buying a toy with share of the profits, Lucas may now save up for a new iPod.

"That iPod was a birthday present from a couple years ago," his mom said. "What makes this sad is he took very good care of it. He respected it."

Times senior researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3320. Follow @PGuzzoTimes.