Boston police were searching for two juvenile thugs accused of robbing a lemonade stand at gunpoint in broad daylight.
A 12-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister were targeted by masked youths, losing about $50 in cash.
The brave children reopened their stand, with the community’s support, donating half of all proceeds to a local gun violence prevention group, Fox News reported.
The young entrepreneurs noticed two juvenile suspects passing the stand in South Boston around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday before the suspects finally stopped to ask if the children accepted Apple Pay, according to the Boston Police Department.
Before the pair could respond, one suspect snatched the cash box while the other lifted his shirt and pulled a black firearm tucked into his waistband.
The two suspects then fled on foot with the cash box containing $50.
The young victims contacted their father, who called 911.
Police have released images and a short video of the juvenile suspects pacing around the area.
The children’s mother, Jennifer Byrne, told NBC Boston the ordeal has left her and her kids traumatized, New York Post reports.
Byrne said she was alerted to the armed robbery while at work when her daughter called, hysterically crying.“‘Somebody put a gun to us and took all of our money,’” she recalled her daughter telling her over the phone.
“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.’”
Byrne told the outlet that a neighbor noticed the suspect with the kids’ pink cash box soon after they were robbed and yelled at the pair to stop.
However, the young thieves dropped the box, quickly snatched the $50 inside, and fled the area again.
Byrne told WCVB that her son described one suspect as a black male smaller than him – guessing he was around 10 or 11 – wearing a balaclava-style mask.
The other was described as a black male in his early teens, wearing a black Nike balaclava-style face mask, black shirt, shorts and high white socks.
“There’s two innocent little kids just trying to make some slush money, and they have to fear for their life. It’s horrific. It’s horrific. I have no other words,” Byrne told WCVB.
