When three girls in Midway, Georgia set up their lemonade stand, they intended to raise enough money to go to the water park. But the ever-vigilant local police quickly identified the girls’ effort as criminal enterprise and shut them down.

“It’s kind of crazy that we couldn’t sell lemonade,” 14-year-old Casity Dixon told WJCL. “It was fun, but we had to listen to the cops and shut it down.”

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The police chief and another officer discovered the stand only one day after it had opened.

“They told us to shut it down,” 10-year-old Skylar Roberts said.

“We had told them, we understand you guys are young, but still, you’re breaking the law, and we can’t let you do it anymore,” Midway Police Chief Kelly Morningstar explained. “The law is the law, and we have to be consistent with how we enforce the laws.”

A city permit that would have allowed the lemonade stand to stay open costs $50 a day. In contrast, a child’s water park ticket goes for about $27.

Watch this video from WJCL, broadcast July 13, 2011.