So, there’s a 12 year old kid in Dunedin, Florida with a lemonade/baked goods neighborhood stand… you know where this is going, right? Of course you do.  This isn’t the first story of this type that you’d be hearing.  Suffice it to say… look, this guy?  Don’t be this guy.

In a scenario reminiscent of the relationship between fictional characters Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson, an older neighbor became increasingly upset with the placement of T.J.’s lemonade stand near his house and tried to force the city government to shut down the boy’s business.

Doug Wilkey, a 61 year-old resident of this Florida neighborhood, emailed City Hall at least four times in two years and requested the police to intervene.

Because he’s also apparently an idiot*.

In a strange bit of irony, the Tampa Bay Times discovered that Wilkey himself is running an unlicensed business operation from his home, and is skipping out on paying required taxes. Rice noted that, “[t]he irony is [Wilkey’s] not following the rules either, or doesn’t seem to be,” and could face fines up to $250 per day until he comes into compliance. What goes around comes around.

The good news on this, aside from the fact that the biter was bit, is that Dunedin officials have wisely decided that they’d rather be on the side of the budding 12 year old entrepeneur than on the one of the grumpy old 61 year old hypocrite who allegedly* isn’t in compliance with the local business code.  And while we’re on that subject… if you could go back and ask the people who wrote up that business code about whether it was meant to regulate lemonade stands, they’d look at you with the pitying looks that people back then gave the incurably, yet essentially nonviolent, insane.

Anyway. Happy ending. This time.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*I think that the article has been updated since Heritage saw it. The latest version doesn’t seem to have this part.