Opinion

Girl at lemonade stand threatened by a man who said he'd call police for lack of a business license

A man threatened to call the police on a girl at her lemonade stand for lack of a business license. A man threatened to call the police on a girl at her lemonade stand for lack of a business license. Photo: Richard LaRouche/ Facebook Photo: Richard LaRouche/ Facebook Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Girl at lemonade stand threatened by a man who said he'd call police for lack of a business license 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

“Whoever the man is who threatened to call the police on my daughter for her lemonade stand, you are seriously pathetic."

"There is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things.

I understand that you were upholding the "law" but really dude?"

This is the story of a little girl from Discover Bay who set up a lemonade stand on public property.

She just wanted to sell some lemonade and cookies. Her parents told her she could be there for 1 hour.

But as she was setting up she was approached by a man who was all bent out of shape by what she was doing.

(Don’t worry there is a happy ending)

Richard LaRouche is the little girl’s father.

He told me:

"The man just pulled up next to her and asked for her business license and then told her ‘I’m calling the police’ and then got on the phone and began speaking as if he was talking to police."

"She was so scared that she came home crying and sobbing and said she didn’t want to go to jail."

But here’s the happy ending.

Richard says:

"When she came home crying I told her that some people are just negative and are looking to bring others down."

"I told her how much our community supported her when I posted what happened."

"She was so surprised and encouraged."

"We set up a second lemonade stand on our property (on Friday) and she was busy the whole three hours."

"Ran out of cookies and had just enough lemonade for the last two police officers."

---Richard LaRouche

I’d love to hear from the person who threatened to call the police.

I keep wondering why he would do that.

Why it was so important to him.

And whether he regrets doing it now.

Regardless I’m glad that Richard’s daughter got to see how the community came together and rallied around her.

I hope she learned that people care.

Case closed.

#RealPeopleRealStoriesRealLife

Frank Somerville is a contributor to SFGATE and anchors the 5, 6, and 10 p.m. news on KTVU. This post originally appeared on his Facebook page.