Missing lemonade stand returns

Published 3:00 pm Friday, December 23, 2022

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For two individuals, life did not give them a lemonade stand but a great misunderstanding.

On Wednesday, Nov. 30, the Farmville Police Department received a call about a stolen lemonade stand outside of the Farmville Chiropractic Center on West Third Street.

According to Sgt. Danny Bowman with the Farmville Police Department, outside the chiropractic center on a hill, Dr. Shawn Kendrick’s daughters have set up a lemonade stand. During the summer months, the girls sell their lemonade from this tiki-style booth. Even though they don’t sell throughout the whole year, the stand is left and most locals are familiar with it being there.

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The day before the stand went missing, those at the office that day saw two men with a truck with a trailer of equipment that stopped near the stand to fix a flat tire. The next morning the stand was gone and Dr. Kendrick reported the tiki-style lemonade stand missing.

Once Bowman came to the scene, he watched the video footage and was able to identify the truck with the trailer. Other video footage caught the truck turning onto Industrial Park Road. Behind one of the businesses on that road, Bowman found the truck and some of the bamboo from the top of the stand next to the trailer.

After talking to the unnamed owner of the truck, Bowman concluded that the whole thing was a true misunderstanding. The men thought the stand had been discarded on the side of the road and one of them knew his wife was looking for something similar. They had left the stools from the lemonade stand behind since he didn’t need them. Being new to the area, they didn’t realize what it was.

“While talking to them I could tell that they had no intention of stealing it,” said Bowman. “The stand does look discarded as it’s not near the building but up on that hill. Being new to the area they didn’t know and thought it had been thrown out.”

Realizing it was a misunderstanding the men returned the lemonade stand to its rightful place. Since the roof had experienced some damage during the transport, the men also ordered a replacement roof.

No charges were made and the tiki stand is ready to serve lemonade again this coming summer.