The police in Boston are searching for two boys who they said flashed a handgun at a pair of children running a lemonade stand on Wednesday and stole an undisclosed amount of cash from a bright pink lockbox.
The robbery, which occurred around 4:45 p.m., rattled South Boston, where it is common for children to set up lemonade stands in the summer for their first taste of the American dream. Many in the neighborhood couldn’t wrap their heads around why someone would target a pair of young entrepreneurs engaged in a time-honored childhood hustle.
Tiffany Byrne, the aunt of the two children working the lemonade stand, said that about $80 was taken.
“The fact that anyone could do this to children is horrible,” she said.
The police put out a public call Thursday afternoon for information that could lead them to two “unknown” boys, one of whom “displayed a black firearm in his waistband” before the pair grabbed the cash from the lockbox and made a run for it.
Ms. Byrne said her nephew, David, 12, and niece, Juliette, 11, “were pretty shaken up” but otherwise unharmed. She said she believed the robbers were wearing masks and were around middle-school age.
The police released surveillance video footage of two boys, one much taller than the other, walking in the middle of a quiet residential street. They said the boys had made “several passes” by the stand before robbing it and had asked if it accepted Apple Pay.
Investigators have received door camera footage from cooperative neighbors, said Ed Flynn, a city councilor representing South Boston.
“There is little I can think of more disturbing than the innocence of a children’s lemonade stand being violated by an armed robbery,” Mr. Flynn said in a statement. “The thoughts of our entire community are with the young children and the families who had to endure this terrible and senseless ordeal.”
Ms. Byrne said that David and Juliette planned to set up another lemonade stand on Friday, at the same spot where they were robbed two days earlier. Mr. Flynn has been circulating a flyer encouraging people to stop by, and said he planned to show up.
“I look forward to buying a lemonade,” he said, “and telling these young people South Boston stands behind them, especially during these challenging times.”
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