Police said the armed robbery of the 9-year-old's lemonade stand was "a new low."
A 9-year-old boy whose lemonade stand was robbed at gunpoint is the happy new owner of a riding lawnmower.
David Smith was selling cool drinks in his North Carolina housing development to raise money for his landscaping business. On Sunday, a teenager in a camo hat held a handgun to the child's stomach and demanded the metal box holding his earnings, according to the Union County Sheriff's Office.
The robber got away with $17, and the neighborhood's peace of mind.
By Monday, the community had rallied, raising more than $200 for the boy, who reopened his stand, albeit a little closer to home. The local Lowe's donated a riding lawnmower to the child, and delivered it to his house in Charlotte.
He was pretty nearly speechless.
"Thank you," he said.
"It's pretty cool what you're trying to do at such a young age, and tell you what, it's pretty awesome to be a part of it," Lowe’s store manager Chris Beatty said.
The child and his stand are a fixture in the neighborhood.
"I'm often seeing the young man selling organic lemonade," resident Robert Pendleton told WSOC-TV.
Deputies found the camo hat and a BB handgun stashed in a wood near the residential tract and are asking the public's help in tracking down the suspect.
“In today's world, people are very bold,” Union County spokesman Tony Underwood said. “Criminals are very bold. This is a new low."
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