SOUTH BOSTON — Two innocent Boston kids just trying to earn a few bucks slinging lemonade got the scare of their young lives when two masked juvenile punks robbed them at gunpoint in broad daylight, then the resilient siblings bounced right back with a neighborhood bash.
The nightmare unfolded around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday on West Ninth Street in Southie, where 12-year-old David Byrne and his 11-year-old sister Juliette were running their stand like any other summer hustlers chasing slushie money.
Two masked boys, described as around 14 and 11, cased the stand with multiple drive-bys before strolling up and casually asking if the kids took Apple Pay, according to Boston Police. Before the siblings could answer, one thug snatched their pink cash box stuffed with about $50. The other lifted his shirt to flash a black firearm tucked in his waistband. “Just take it!” a terrified Juliette cried out, throwing her hands up.
The pint-sized bandits bolted on foot toward Dorchester Street. The shaken kids called their dad, who dialed 911. Their mom, Jennifer Byrne, was at work when her daughter phoned in hysterics: “Somebody put a gun to us and took all of our money!”
“It’s horrific. There’s two innocent little kids just trying to make some slush money, and they have to fear for their life,” the mom told reporters. “My daughter said when they said ‘We’re taking it all,’ she put her arms up in the air and said, ‘Just take it. Just take it.’
Police released surveillance video and images of the suspects, one in a black Nike balaclava, black shirt, shorts, and high white socks. The community was outraged.
But Southie wasn’t about to let the young entrepreneurs stay down. On Friday, June 12, hundreds of neighbors, Boston cops, Mayor Michelle Wu, Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden and even former Mayor Ray Flynn lined up around the block for a massive lemonade stand fundraiser. Proceeds went to youth violence prevention efforts. Stop & Shop donated supplies and $2,000.
“I haven’t paid so much for lemonade in all my life,” quipped Ray Flynn, who dropped $10.
The good news? Boston PD announced during the rally that they’d busted a 14-year-old boy on two counts of armed robbery and two counts of unlawful firearm possession. He’s due in juvenile court. Cops are still hunting the younger suspect.
David and Juliette, showing grit beyond their years, reopened the shop and turned lemons into lemonade, literally. “It annoyed me, too, because we’re kids and we’re just trying to have fun,” Juliette said. The family called the outpouring “relieving.”
City Councilor Ed Flynn slammed the “senseless” crime, calling for more cops and community policing: “No one envisions a place where a children’s lemonade stand is robbed at gunpoint as the safest city in America.”
