Business Dreams Turn Sour

By Joanna Miller in News on Jun 19, 2006 7:35PM

Chicagoist isn’t much for melodrama, but this story melts even our cold, snarky hearts. Two suburban sisters are confused and sad after thieves stole their lemonade stand from their babysitter’s Naperville garage.

Lucinda and Marcelite Bucheit, 3 and 5, were in business for three days and made $51 (nice!) before their stand was stolen. They were saving the money to buy presents for their parents (all together now – “Aww”). The girls spent two days building the stand with scrap wood – they painted it purple with yellow letters that said “M & Lu’s, 25 cents.” Yeah, it was just about the cutest thing ever.

"I got sad when I heard our stand was gone," Marcelite said. "I don't know why anybody would want a lemonade stand with somebody else's name on it."

Who would want a lemonade stand with somebody else’s name on it? We certainly have no idea. Naperville police say they’re investigating it as they would any other case of stolen property. We’ll let you decide for yourselves what that means.

The girls, meanwhile, plan to build a new stand next week.

UPDATE: Apparently when Naperville Police said they would handle the theft like any other case, that meant going out and finding it ASAP. Police found the lemonade stand in an alley yesterday morning, in mint condition. Thanks to Marcelite and Lucinda's dad for the email update.