Boston Police are investigating the robbery of a children’s lemonade stand in Southie — at gunpoint.
“There is little I can think of more disturbing than the innocence of a children’s lemonade stand being violated by an armed robbery,” Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents portions of South Boston, said after learning of the crime.
“When something as serious as this happens, we cannot downplay or ignore it. As a City, we have to finally acknowledge we have serious public safety issues in Boston. We desperately need more police officers and to redouble our community policing efforts,” Flynn continued.
Boston Police responded to a report of an armed robbery at 157 W. 9th St. in South Boston at around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, according to the police report. There, they met up with the child victims who were now with their father.
The children said that two boys had “made several passes by the Lemonade Stand before they approached and asked whether or not they would accept Apple Pay,” according to the report. Before the young lemonade entrepreneurs could respond, however, the child robbers grabbed the stand’s cashbox, which contained about $50 in cash, and one of the suspects flashed a black handgun before the pair ran off.
The children described the suspects, according to the report. One “was described as a dark-skinned black male about 14-years-old wearing a black Nike sheisty, black shirt, unknown color shorts and high white socks, this suspect displayed a black firearm in his waistband.” The second suspect “was described as a light-skinned black male about 11 years-old with a black sheisty and unknown clothing description.”
A “sheisty” is apparently a term for a balaclava, or full-face covering, according to images of the clothing on Nike’s website.
The children told police that the suspects had run off toward W. 9th Street before reaching Dorchester Street. The local police intelligence agency, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, says its cameras did not face toward the incident.
Police ask that anyone with any information regarding these suspects contact detectives at 617-343-4742 or submit information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers Tip Line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS (8477) or texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).
Surveillance video shows two children the police suspect of armed robbery of a children’s lemonade stand in South Boston. (Composite of Boston Police stills)