After theft at lemonade stand, customers lined up by the hundreds

Siblings Rebecca and Josh Caldwell were sitting on their front lawn selling lemonade when a young man approached their stand, grabbed their money jar and drove away. The jar contained about $40.

“I was shocked and a little mad at the man,” said Rebecca, 10, who sprinted inside to tell her mother what happened. She was in tears.

“I felt angry,” said Josh, 8, who was also shaken up.

Annetta Caldwell had been outside with her kids that day, Aug. 14, but went inside for a few minutes to take a phone call. That’s when the man made his move.

“They were scared,” Caldwell said of her children, who often set up neighborhood lemonade stands outside their home in Chesapeake, Virginia.

“We’ve been doing lemonade stands for years … we’ve never had any issues at all,” she said, adding that Rebecca and Josh typically charge $2 per cup of lemonade.

Caldwell called the Chesapeake Police Department to report the incident, and when officers arrived at their home, Caldwell and her husband shared footage from their surveillance camera showing the man stealing the jar and driving off in a silver Toyota sedan.

The footage showed the man driving past the Caldwells’ house before turning around and getting out of his car.

“He was waiting for me to go inside,” Caldwell said.

The Caldwells posted on Nextdoor, the neighborhood social networking site, to let their neighbors know what happened.

“It didn’t make sense for a grown man to come and steal money from kids,” Caldwell said.

She and her husband didn’t want the incident to deter their children from setting up the lemonade stand in the future.

“We don’t want them to be afraid; we want them to still do the things that they love,” Caldwell said.

They encouraged their kids to host another lemonade stand about a week after the incident. Caldwell hoped a large turnout might lift their spirits.

The story was reported by local news outlets, and stations started advertising the Saturday lemonade stand. As word spread, people made plans to attend, and the Caldwells stocked up on cups and lemonade to meet the demand.

“I’m a father of two kids myself, so I really resonated with the story,” said Andrew Reyes, who heard about the theft though a friend. “I wanted to gather as many people as I could.”

Reyes decided to post about the upcoming lemonade stand in his biker group, 757 Bike Meet-Up & Ride. Right away, fellow bikers got on board.

“One thing in the motorcycle community is you don’t mess with kids,” Reyes said. “Once we saw that story, it had to be done.”

On Aug. 24, a group of more than 130 bikers rolled up to Rebecca and Josh’s lemonade stand.

“It warmed my heart,” Reyes said. “It really did.”

Over the course of the day, Caldwell said, about 650 people showed up, including family, friends, neighbors, strangers, local firefighters, police and city council members.

“I was just blown away by everything,” Caldwell said. “Our whole community is amazing.”

“We knew it would be a big crowd because of the news, but we did not anticipate that many,” she continued.

The siblings said they were stunned by the enormous show of support.

“It was really nice seeing all the people,” Rebecca said.

Neighbors who were unsettled by the theft said they were warmed by the turnout.

“We’ve never seen anything like that before around here,” said Randy Watson, who lives across the street and spent the whole day watching the crowd.

“Everybody just gave,” he said. “It wasn’t about getting lemonade. It was about restoring those little kids’ hope.”

In addition to their profits from the lemonade stand – which ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – people from outside Chesapeake pitched in as well. Strangers sent letters and cash from all over the country, including from Indiana, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

“We’re still getting checks in the mail,” said Caldwell, adding that her children have raked in about $6,500. They plan to make a donation to their 20-year-old sister to put toward an upcoming missionary trip to Asia, Caldwell said, and use the rest to buy a four-wheeler and a dirt bike.

“They’re super excited,” she said.

Police arrested a 19-year-old on Aug. 27 and charged him with theft in connection with the case.

“We ended up establishing enough probable cause to charge this person with petit larceny,” said Leo Kosinski, the Chesapeake Police Department’s public information officer.

Caldwell said she and her children forgive the man for what he did.

“We don’t know what was going on with him that caused him to do that,” Caldwell said. “The big lesson with this is that we forgive.”

Her children also learned that there are, indeed, good people in the world.

“My kids feel so loved, and they have hope again,” Caldwell said.