Police hunt lemonade stand robber on the run

The lemonade stand. Photo / Fox29

A teenager who held up a North Carolina lemonade stand for US$17 was still at large today, and authorities said they hoped to track him through surveillance footage and possible DNA and fingerprint tests.

Neighbours were asked to check their home security cameras for possible clues, said Union County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tony Underwood.

He said a camouflage hat and BB pistol found along with a metal cash box was found in some nearby woods and could be checked for fingerprints and DNA.

The 9-year-old lemonade vendor said a teenager wearing a similar hat and a black shirt pointed a black handgun at him and took his cash box on Sunday in Monroe, about 50km southeast of Charlotte.

"We think we are making positive traction" in the investigation, Underwood said.

Neighbour Kelly Smith said she noticed the boy's stand with its yellow sign offering "organic lemonade" at a traffic roundabout at the entrance to her planned community as she left to pick up her daughter at taekwondo class. She said she intended on patronising the boy's business when she returned, only to find him gone and a half-dozen patrol cars on her street.

"It's heart-wrenching. That little boy will never be the same," Smith said.

Smith said she suspects the robber may be from her neighbourhood because there are no stores or much of anything else nearby.

The 9-year-old set up his lemonade stand again at the neighbourhood pool yesterday and did a brisk business, Smith said.

- AP